The booming business of Terracycle Corporation ($8mills this year, $15 mills next year), does not hold up to our ethical standards of local enterprise building by and for the locals.
According to an article written about Terracycle (WSJ July 1,2008) this company has set up a network of well meaning volunteers to collect for them “wrappers” and “pouches” at the miserable price of two cents per piece!!!!
trash collecting brigades they call them.
Typically these brigades are sponsored by various food makers of major brands. Their next step is sending these valuable resources to Mexico where cheap labor is eagerly waiting to transform and repurpose them into fashionable items for chain retailers. (attached images of umbrella & tote bag).
What we see here is a Rip Off chain. The five main rings in this chain are: 1) a low redemption fee, 2) use of very cheap foreign labor, 3) high retail price, you are paying for novelty and fashion statement value, 4) inferior quality for this type of volume production, 5) your money goes to subsidize free (to them) ad campaigns!!!
Some major brands who benefit from these schemes include: “capri sun” , Clif Bar Co., Kellogg and the ubiquitous Coca Cola.
And what about all those cute little pull toys out of Africa? the tiny cars trucks helicopters and bicycles made from aluminum cans?
Sadly this is a similar Rip Off, only pennies per piece go to the women and children who work on them, (having tiny hands helps in this type of work), the exporter then adds a huge mark up and the green fashion boutique again doubles the price. You end up paying
$20 or more and walk away feeling good believing to be supporting poor people and to be saving the earth. Wrong all wrong, see how spotless these toys look, way too clean cut to have been rescued from the dump or from the gutter!!!
This appeal is for you to be a discerning buyer and for this less consumistic up and coming holidays support instead the works of truly original Yanbukis. The ones who transform trash before your eyes creating one of a kind or very limited editions. In other words demand to see the “Gutter Proof” warranty which is the corner stone of Trash Worship philosophy.
No reason to panic for a true believer in waste salvation, just a reminder that this kind of fake socially correct co opting is now reaching the masses and it could hurt the support for original and local trash crafting unless we go out there in large forces and present the “Gutter Proof” option.
Pictures are clearer than all the above words.
Attached image is of a local boy in Africa showing his one of a kind personal toy boat made with an abandoned flip flop and plastic bag for sail. It is is another league from the Terracycle items, it’s the inventiveness of the spirit that matters most especially in trash work.
Happy Halloween
Recycle & Pray