Made in the USA: Locally Grown and Green Toys

Our last blog explained why “multinational investments”- or moving a factory overseas to incur cheaper production costs- is a nasty, slippery slope. Although products made in the USA have long had a reputation for sturdiness and high quality, the trend of outsourcing factory work to other countries (specifically China, Taiwan, and India) has lent itself to the vast majority of companies. With so many goods being manufactured this way, it’s hard to find products that are made domestically, in sanitary and humane conditions, by well-paid, happy workers. Let The Greener Good help you out with that!

         

Allow us to introduce Locally Grown, the sustainable star of our store! This altruistic clothing company trumpets the importance of buying locally-made goods, supporting family farmers, and engaging in sustainable production methods. Locally Grown sources and manufactures all of their products in the USA, rebelling against the outsourcing majority in favor of boosting local farmers and artisans. Their clothing is super high-quality, and made by midwestern workers in the United States who embrace the values of pride, courage, and respect for our planet.

         

For the truck-and-tools lover in all of us, Green Toys delivers fantastic playthings made from recycled milk jugs. Not only are these toys recycled, packaged minimally, and tested rigorously for safety, but they’re also 100% made in the good ol’ U-S-and-A. Produced in California, Green Toys strives to save energy by avoiding the need for overseas transport of their products. The milk containers are collected from the Californian Milk Jug Mines (also known as recycling companies), and manufactured in-state. What could possibly delight a child more than knowing that her pink dump-truck is sustainably made and environmentally friendly?

If you’re keen on finding out what you can do to save the USA from slipping into the impending doom of a trade crisis, check out this Friday’s blog for more about Buying American, or drop by The Greener Good to ask one of our associates about our domestically-made products!

Made in the USA

In the past 10 years, over 50,000 American factories have shut down and shipped overseas in the name of “multinational investment”– in other words, factory outsourcing. Driven chiefly by the prospects of cheap labor and reduced taxes, corporations fire their employees en masse and gallivant off to China, where they can profit from sneaky currency conversion and a much larger market. What’s wrong with cheap products, though? Don’t they make a wider variety of goods available to more Americans?

Not exactly. For starters, the outsourcing movement has demolished at least 5.5 million American jobs, and forced millions more impoverished laborers into lives of near-slavery. Although companies claim that they’re saving the dollars of US consumers by making goods more affordable, the American consumer isn’t really benefiting at all when their own salaries are slashed in half for the sake of low-quality products. If you’re still not convinced that ‘multinational investments’ are a bad move, consider the following:

• Workers unions don’t exist in places like China, Taiwan, and India, where employees work devastating hours for excessively meager wages in horrifying conditions
• Unethical, unregulated factories pump out massive amounts of pollution into the atmosphere, covering cities like Linfen, China in a choking layer of smoke (the toxic levels of arsenic in their water supply aren’t particularly “green,” either)
• Foreign factory jobs do not create enough money to stimulate the economies of the developing countries they are established in– the average overseas factory worker is paid $1/hr, with no benefits or health plan
• Multinational investments inhibit the growth of local industries in America, which are quashed by corporate giants making quick money off abused laborers
• Factories force developing countries to produce goods for export rather than focusing on the needs of their local communities and their nation
• America buys $600 billion more than it sells on a yearly basis– hey there, trade deficit, what’s up?
• American-made products stimulate the economy, create jobs, raise wages, and allow a huge wave of relief to flow over pressured international laborers

Although the concept of “buying American” is pretty straightforward, it can be maddeningly frustrating to actually pull off. To get through your daily routine without using a single imported good would be a wee bit of a struggle, to say the least. From your coffee, to your clothes, to your car, everything you use is the result of multinational factory outsourcing. There’s a light at the end of the sooty tunnel, however! Stay tuned to this week’s blog series to find out what The Greener Good is doing to help concerned consumers make wise decisions about the products they buy.

Why Is Bamboo Green?

Bamboo has become a popular material among the eco-friendly crowd. In fact, if you step into our store, you’ll notice that we’ve got bamboo toys, bamboo clothing, and even bamboo utensils! If you haven’t heard about the ecological benefits of this softwood, you may be rather bamboozled by this craze. So, why is bamboo considered to be so “green”?

First of all, it’s a renewable resource, largely owed to its short growth cycle. Bamboo’s quick regeneration helps cut down on the cutting down of forests, and aids with preventing erosion. The imaginative game pictured above was created by Hape, and mimics the speed at which bamboo matures. Here’s a quote that appears in toy’s product description:

“Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. If cultivated properly, it can fully regenerate within 3 months, causing no detriment to the surrounding ecosystem. Bamboo raises the water level in the areas that surround it. It is an enormous consumer of CO2, thereby increasing the amount of oxygen in the air. “

The adaptive plant provides more oxygen per square foot than the average tree, and can be just as strong as hardwood– while being many times more flexible. Bamboo is a very versatile material, used to create everything from sturdy building materials to super-soft bath towels… like these from Yala!

For those of you who prefer brevity, here’s a list of reasons why Bamboo > Trees:

• It takes trees up to 50 years to reach maturation. Some varieties of bamboo can grow several feet in one day, much like a teenage boy.
• Bamboo is scrappy enough to grow in a wide variety of different climates, unlike those wimpy Poplars.
• No pesticides or chemicals are necessary to aid the growth of bamboo.
• Trees chug water. Bamboo merely sips it.
• Bamboo is wildly biodegradable, and makes excellent compost.
• Some trees are poisonous enough to kill a grown bodybuilder. Bamboo, however, is absolutely non-toxic to humans and animals. Yay!

The story doesn’t end here, though- we haven’t heard about bamboo’s dark side! Although bamboo itself is as green as can be, the manufacturing process isn’t always environmentally responsible (shocking, I know). Stay tuned for Wednesday’s blog on Why Bamboo ISN’T Green!