A while back I had heard that there was a new process of making fabric from spent coffee grinds.  The fabric was purportedly mixed with recycled PET to make “coffee polyester”.  I was so excited by this idea (being a coffee addict lover myself), that I’ve been on the lookout for coffee clothing ever since.

At the Go Green Expo, I finally found coffee nirvana.  I saw shirts made from 100% coffee polyester that honestly didn’t feel all that good, but were adorably cute with coffee beans printed on them, and nice fashion pieces that were 60% coffee polyester, 40% tencel that actually looked and felt good.  The prices were reasonable and I was all set to go!

I sat down with the manufacturer to talk process.  Exactly how is coffee polyester created (and why do the t-shirts feel like 1970’s polyester suits)?  It turns out that recycled PET is combined with… here it comes… 2% coffee grinds and then respun into yarn.  So “coffee polyester” is actually 98% polyester with a sprinkle of coffee.  I was looking for a double espresso and instead got a Grande latte with 1/2 shot.  So those nice 60% coffee polyester, 40% tencel shirts actually contained just 1.2% coffee.

The process is fairly clean and dyed with low-impact dyes.  Since all the polyester is recycled it’s not a bad choice environmentally.  But would anyone actually want one?  What’s your opinion?  Is a little coffee better than no coffee?  Please leave a comment or answer our poll on the top right sidebar to share your opinion.

FaeriesDance.com ships everything through the US Postal Service.  Both UPS and Fedex have better tracking information and more integrated web-based solutions which would make switching to one of those carriers faster and more efficient for our office staff.  Unfortunately, there are 3 big downfalls to both of those options. 

First, both UPS and Fedex are more expensive than the US Postal Service when shipping small items to individuals.  If you’re shipping large freight and/or mostly to business addresses, that is not true.  But for us, the good old USPS is cheaper for more than 95% of our everyday shipping needs – including overnight.

Second, while this may seem odd, USPS is actually faster for standard shipping than either of the other carriers. Priority Mail is a standard mailing option that generally takes 2-3 business days to anywhere in the country.  Faster, cheaper shipping generally makes happier customers, so those are both good points for us.  And despite the jokes often heard about their reputation, we’ve not had a single package “lost in the mail” within the US since we’ve been in business.

Finally, although UPS and Fedex have been “greening” their trucks and delivery methods, the fact is that the US Postal Service visits almost every household in America every day anyway.  I live in a community with 89 homes.  USPS delivers to at least 80 of them every business day, whereas I’ve often seen the UPS and Fedex trucks come into the community to deliver a single package.  I have to believe that a lot more fuel is being wasted on “special trips” to single homes here and there rather than just adding a package to a destination that is already being covered.  (Though in truth, I have no data to back this up – but it seems sensible to me.)

This year we’re trying to ship more items in the cardboard envelops rather than the Tyvek bags whenever possible.  Besides the flat rate cardboard being slightly less expensive to ship, it is easier to reuse and recycle.  We are happy to point out that all of the USPS shipping supplies have achieved the environmental cradle-to-cradle certification for sustainability and health concerns.

Also, don’t worry if your package comes with some packing materials or even bubble wrap.  All of our packing materials (except the recycled tissue paper we wrap undergarments in) are reused from shipments we get in.  We like wrapping purses with metal zippers as well as jewelry in bubble wrap.  Even though we don’t use very much, early on we found we wanted more bubble wrap than we were getting.  Then a local tech company moved their offices and I got a great idea.  After the move we asked them what they were going to do with their packing supplies.  They were reusing boxes, which is good, but they were going to toss out the mounds of bubble wrap and packing materials they had purchased just for the move.  Viola!  We scored enough bubble wrap to last us for years to come and diverted it from becoming a big landfill mess.  We also bring all packing peanuts we get in to a local mailing center for reuse.  We hope you reuse the packing materials you get from us as well.  Most of these things can be reused again and again.
We’re happy to hear suggestions on packing and shipping.  One person suggested we try Freecycle to get reused packing supplies.  We’ve posted want ads, but thus far haven’t had any response.  We’re always looking for new ideas to minimize waste though; so keep the suggestions coming. 

Happy New Year everyone!

One commenter in the last post mentioned that they were uncomfortable purchasing items that are individually wrapped in plastic.  We agree, the plastic wrap has got to go.  So here’s a list of companies that are doing their part in getting rid of the wrap.

Companies that send items unwrapped in bulk

• bgreen – our most eco company in terms of packing and shipping.  They do all their manufacturing in Los Angeles about 8 miles from our warehouse.  Most of the time we don’t even have their items shipped; we schedule a time when someone’s already out and about and have the products picked up directly.  So there’s virtually no transportation cost from them to us and everything is unwrapped.  Their smaller items, like panties, don’t even have hang tags.
• Perfectly Imperfect Tees (PI Organics) – another Southern California based company that ships all their products without bags.  Sure, their dresses wind up a bit wrinkled from them to us to you, but what’s a little steamer or touch of ironing between friends?  Their lingerie also comes without hang tags.
• SOS From Texas – from seed to shirt this company works completely in the USA, and ships all their products bag-free in bulk
• Jim Morris T-Shirts – their environmental-themed screen printed tees always come in bulk without hang tags or bags. They source the tees from a variety of places from the USA to India, so there are some transportation costs, and they use conventional screen printing methods.  But the lack of packaging and a commitment to charitable giving make this small company a good choice.
• Pants to Poverty – this UK-based poverty-fighting powerhouse company has traditionally sent their panties in bulk with no tags. Their most recent line of Angel Wing and Angel Print panties came in adorable recycled cotton gift boxes for the holidays. While we love the look of the boxes, they’re environmentally impractical.  We’ve talked to them and they assure us they’ll be going back to bulk shipped items in the new year.

Companies improving packaging options

• Goddess Gear – this small, woman-owned business does all their manufacturing in Colorado and ships whole size runs in a single bag.  So all smalls for example will come in one plastic bag. Generally that will mean 2 -5 items per bag instead of individually wrapped.
• Earth Creations – this USA manufacturer has just announced that starting in 2010 they will also be doing a complete switch to corn-based bags. All of their current products are still in plastic, but we’re excited that they’re making the switch.

We take bulk-shipped items and wrap them in a single piece of 100% post-consumer recycled tissue paper before we ship them.  All bulk items go in one tissue together.  This keeps them clean and hygienic for shipping.  But if you really don’t want even that much packaging, just let us know in the comments section of your order and we’ll let all your items roam free in their shipping envelops. 🙂

On a side note, our commenter mentioned that it might be better to just buy from a local, non-organic store to avoid the packaging. I have personally seen items shipped from China in individual plastic bags get taken out of their bags and hung on hangers (from the days of college side jobs). Just because you see something on a hangar doesn’t mean it didn’t come in a plastic bag.

I’ll address shipping options (boxes versus tyvek versus reused/recycled bags) in the next post.

We’re giving away a Pacific Spirit Sweatshirt in your choice of size and color!

HOW TO ENTER:  Just leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post. (Preferably pertaining to shipping, but any comment will enter you in the drawing.)  Be sure to provide e-mail contact information.

Today I received an e-mail from a very irate customer on our shipping policies.  I wish I could keep a business attitude towards these things, but this store is my passion – a lot of time, energy and thought have gone into it and even one unhappy customer is usually enough to bring me to tears.  (Yup, I’m one of those weepy people.)  I really do want every single customer to be happy, but I have found that this is an impossible goal. 

But I digress.  The issue at hand is shipping.  We keep prices very low as a matter of course.  All products from US manufactures are at least 10% off the MSRP.  Unless someone is having an unexpected sale, you can generally go right to any of our manufacturers and find that we sell their items cheaper than they do every single day.  (Massive fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates prevent us from making the same claim on our Canadian and European manufacturers, but we do our best.) 

Of course, this means we make lower profits.  No worries on that because hopefully we’re spreading the Green message and selling more with our low prices to make up for it.  However, we can’t offer super low prices and free shipping all the time.  Sadly, shipping just costs too much.  Our current policy is to offer reasonable shipping charges and then offer free shipping on large orders (over $99 where our profit is a little higher).  If no one ever returned anything, this would probably work fine.  But it gets a little sticky with partial returns where an order started out at $100 and ended up at $35.

In any event, we thought we take the question directly to our customers.  On the right you’ll find a poll booth.  Would you rather pay a little more (say MSRP) to get free shipping on every item all the time?  Do you prefer knowing you’re getting the very best deal and seeing shipping charges broken out separately?  Or does the hybrid method we’re currently using work best – good prices and free shipping only on large orders?  After you vote, be sure to leave a comment to enter yourself into our drawing for the free sweatshirt.  We’ll draw for a winner on December 1, 2009.

Depending on the winning poll answer, we may have a follow up question… 

If you’ve ever purchased anything from us, FaeriesDance.com is your store.  Even if you’ve just looked, the fact is, it was designed for you, our eco-conscious customers.  So please help design it the way you’d like to see it.  Your opinion really does count!

November 15 is America Recycles Day.  (Of course, looking at the name, I immediately wonder why there isn’t a World Recycles Day.)  In 2009, I wonder why we need this.  By now, recycling should be a gimme.  There are recycling drop off stations in almost every city and town; many of us now enjoy curbside recycling; and there are tons of information sources from Real Simple and E-Magazine to the Environmental Protection Agency on how to recycle just about anything.  In addition, there are fabulous groups like Freecycle and resources such as Craigslist where you can sell, swap or just give away your old stuff to someone who might want or need it.

November 15 isn’t the one day in the year when you should recycle.  It’s a day marked out to evaluate how you are doing on recycling.  Let’s all try to improve recycling efforts both at home and in our workplace.  Of course, the less you use, the less you need to recycle.  Maybe November 15 is the day you finally buy that reusable Starbucks cup (or the equivalent at your favorite coffee shop), start packing your child’s lunch sandwiches in Tupperware instead of zip lock bags or put out a bin in the office to collect cans.  (Hint: if you don’t want to recycle them yourself, you can often find a Girl Scout or Boy Scout troop leader that will pick them up for you.)

Whatever you do, make one change starting now.  Add one small step to live greener.  You may be surprised by how good it feels.

I had planned on doing a post about eco-wrapping later this holiday season.  Today I was going to write a bit about the first ever Eco-Model, Rachel Avalon, who won the Project Green Search eco-model competition.  I had the chance to meet Rachel very briefly last week at the first ever Green Bloggers Convention.  (On a side note, it’s thrilling to see all these new environmentally-focused events popping up.  More and more people are taking action to dance lightly on our planet.)

To my surprise, while I was looking for an introduction on Rachel, I found this fantastic little video that she produced on… you guessed it… eco-friendly gift wrapping. So here’s Rachel introducing herself better than I ever could with some awesome green holiday tips.

In addition to all of Rachel’s great ideas, one of my personal favorites is wrapping gifts with the Sunday comics section.  If you happen to have any old maps lying around, they also make great wrapping paper.

Reusable gift bags are good in a pinch as well.  Although many of them are made from virgin materials, well made ones can be used again and again.  I’ve had some holiday gift bags pass back and forth between family members for years.  Just fold them after use and store them for next year.

We offer a selection of tree-free gift bags made from a mix of kenaf, hemp, sugar cane, flax and recycled materials that will last through many gift exchanges.

If your child is asked to sell gift wrap through a school or event fundraiser, be sure to mention to the coordinator that you’d like to see recycled gift wrap on offer next year.  Many of the fundraising companies don’t receive a lot of requests or feedback, so letting them know what you would purchase can really make a difference.  If you have a chance to write or e-mail the company directly, take it.

As a final thought, if you’re purchasing any holiday gifts from FaeriesDance.com, you can always have us gift wrap them for you using 100% recycled apparel boxes (65% post-consumer) with 100% post-consumer recycled tissue paper and 100% post-industrial recycled kraft gift wrap finished with natural raffia ribbon.  New for this holiday, we just got in this festive tree motif recycled kraft wrapping paper design.

Formaldehyde has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  So it might surprise you to find out that there’s probably formaldehyde in your underwear, albeit at very low levels.

Formaldehyde has been used for years on a variety of clothing as a finishing agent.  It contributes to the stain-free, wrinkle-free and static-free properties of a garment.  The low levels of the chemical used in clothing have historically been considered safe.

However, last year Victoria’s Secret got hit with a lawsuit after one woman started developing welts and rashes after wearing one of their bras.  The lawsuit snowballed and there is now a class action suit against Victoria’s Secret.  I’m not sure that this is really a “fair” lawsuit, since you’d very likely find the same chemicals in bras purchased from the mall or any *mart store.  Additionally, some people are very sensitive to certain chemicals, while others may wear the same garment for years without issue.

All that being said, even if formaldehyde is harmless at low levels and can be removed with a few good washings, do you really want it in your underwear?  You may not be chemically sensitive, but… yuck!  Let’s not get all gloomy now, though.  FaeriesDance.com quite happily offers more than 4 dozen panty options and 100+ bras all sans formaldehyde.  Now that’s something to dance about.

This is a question we get often so I’d like to clarify the answer.  We have many lines with tags that say “Made in the USA” on them.  But legally speaking, that only means that the final garment was sewn in the USA.  There are essentially 3 steps to making a piece of clothing (organic or otherwise).

1. The base material (cotton, hemp, bamboo, pine tree, whatever) has to be grown somewhere.
2. The base material has to be soaked, spun, woven or otherwise turned into fabric for cutting or yarn for knitting/crocheting.
3. The garment has to be sewn (or knit or crocheted).

While there are always exceptions to every rule, we have found that in the vast majority of cases #1 and #2 are done in the same region.  It’s too expensive to grow cotton in one country, send the raw material to another country to make fabric and then send the fabric to a 3rd country for cutting and sewing.  Most raw material is turned into fabric or yarn local to where it is grown.  However, it is very common to produce fabric in one country and then ship the finished fabric off to another country to have it sewn.

The tag on this adorable Overall Dress on the left states Made in the USA.  But the Hemp/Tencel blended fabric is imported.  We do our very best to track down exactly where our products are imported from.  We try to list both where an item is sewn and where it’s grown along with working conditions for both.

As we mentioned in our Quick Facts, the USA does not grow enough organic cotton to meet our own eco-fashion needs.  Thus organic cotton is often imported.  Hemp has only recently been legalized to grow in the USA, so much of it is still imported.

We’re started putting a “Made in America” flag on items that are sewn in the USA. Bolstering our manufacturing capability definitely helps job our economy and job growth, even if the fabric has been imported. So as long as the item has been sewn in the USA, you’ll see that flag. Check the “Fabric & Care” section for more details on where the fabric originates. 

There are still a (very) few manufacturers who grow and sew end-to-end completely in the USA.  For example, SOS From Texas grows, spins, weaves and sews completely in the USA. For our own in-house underwear brand, Green Tree Organic, we design, pattern, cut, sew and print locally in Oregon using GOTS certified fabrics from India. We think the resulting panties, like the Hearts A’Flutter shown right, are still pretty great. (But we’re definitely biased.)

There is so much confusion on what goes into dyes that I thought I’d help clarify a little. There are a large number of variations within categories of dyes, but for now we’ll stick to gross categories to get oriented. Here is my take on the overall dye process and the eco-friendliness of different dyes.

What most people hear about these days are low-impact dyes, azo-free dyes or fiber-reactive dyes. These are a category of synthetic, chemical-based dyes that are absorbed more easily into clothing than conventional dyes. Low-impact dyes are substantially better for the environment than conventional dyes because:

• The higher absorption rate (greater than 70%) means less chemical and grey water runoff.
• They do not include azo-dyes, a family of dye groups that can contain anything from toxic compounds such as chlorine bleach to known carcinogens such as carcinogenic aryl amines.
• Low-impact dyes do not contain heavy metals

Still while low-impact dyes are better for the environment than conventional dyes, that doesn’t specifically mean they are good for the environment. Also, many people with multiple chemical sensitivities have reactions to low-impact dyes.

Going one small step further, some textiles are Oeko-Tek or Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified. These certifications do not focus solely on the dye, but are end-to-end process and final textile safety certifications. The dyes used in the final fabric must be at least as good as low-impact dyes and are specifically tested for skin-safety. The only issue with these standards is that they are not always used in the USA, since both were developed in Europe. There are many legitimate, eco-friendly companies that are still using USA-specific fiber certifications along with low-impact dyes. For example SOS From Texas grows cotton that meets all US Department of Agriculture Organic Standards and is certified organic by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Their final textiles would likely pass either of the above mentioned certifications, so the lack thereof for a US company is not necessarily telling in any way.

Getting away from synthetic dyes altogether, low-impact or otherwise, there is a class of natural dyes that are higher up on the eco-scale. Clay-dyes are dyes that are literally made from natural earth muds and clays. They are mixed with water and often little else. The colors are softer, but the dye stays put and they tend to work for people with chemical sensitives. Earth Creations has been offering clay-dyed clothing since 1996. Similarly, there are herbal and tea dyes which are created from plants. The range of colors is limited, but lovely and again, these dyes tend to work for chemically sensitive folks. The biggest downside of herbal dyes is the price. Faerie’s Dance has seen some lovely tea dyed pieces, but so far we’ve balked at the higher costs. We will have some herbal dyed items in 2010 to test the market desire.

Of course the overall least impact to the environment is not to dye clothing at all. So undyed is at the top of our eco-friendly list. But for those who may be tired of “natural” colored items, there is an alternative. There are several strains of cotton that are grown in colors. The colors are somewhat muted, but there is a lovely camel brown and soft green generally referred to as Colorgrown cottons. You can see the depth of color in the undyed brown sock in the center versus the traditional natural colored cotton socks on the ends. Take a look at this undyed Peasant Dress in camel brown.

In summary, the best way to get truly vibrant purples and reds is to use low-impact dyes. We all need a few fashion pieces that really make a statement. But if we fill in the closet with clay-dyed, herbal dyed, Colorgrown and undyed items, we’ll have a lighter impact on the planet and a healthier wardrobe all around.

There is a lot of worry about credit card theft after hearing news this week of the 3 men who stole roughly 125 million credit card numbers. You may be thinking that doing business with a small company online is more risky than a big-box e-tailer like Amazon.com. Actually, at FaeriesDance.com it’s exactly the opposite!

First, let’s clarify risk. There are 2 main risks to your credit card information when shopping online. The first is that your card number is at risk during the time that it is in transit from the online store to the approving credit card bank. Transit times are generally less than 1 second total. FaeriesDance.com, like most online businesses, employees Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. We use a 256-bit industry-standard encryption that encodes your credit card number while it is transmitted from our site to the credit card approving bank. This is the same level of transmission encryption that most financial institutions use. The thing is, it’s really not worth it for a potential credit card thief to try to time their hack for that partial second and then spend weeks or months breaking the encryption code to get a single credit card number. While it makes good sense to encrypt the data, credit card data is rarely if ever lost this way.

The second risk is that a potential credit card thief will hack into an online store’s encrypted database to gain access to the credit card information of every person that store has ever done business with! Not only is this a big gain for the thief, but the databases exist permanently, so they have plenty of time to crack the encryption. This is the primary way that credit cards are compromised – and it happens to companies of all sizes.

In my infinite wisdom 😉 I realized when creating FaeriesDance.com that we would not likely have the resources to keep up with the constant barrage of database threats. So, we simply avoided them altogether. FaeriesDance.com does not store your credit card information anywhere, any time, in any database, EVER!

OK, so this means that if you accidentally put in the wrong expiration date and get a message back from the bank to that effect, you have to retype the card number. If you shop with us a lot, you don’t have the neat-o feature that allows you to just reuse the same card as last time – you have to retype the card number. If you type the card number and then decide to purchase something else, as soon as you click off the payment page to go back to the shopping cart, you wipe out the card number and again, have to retype it.

While all of this retyping can occasionally be annoying, the fact is, that it is by far the most secure system of obtaining credit card information online. You type it in, it’s instantly sent to the credit card approving company and never written to any database where it could be hacked. Your credit card information does not exist on our website, and therefore cannot be stolen from our website.

For those of you who are still concerned about using your credit card online, the best piece of advice I can give is to always check the “no” option when asked if you want your credit card number saved for future purchases. (We don’t ask – saving your credit card number is not an option at FaeriesDance.com.) This simple tip will go a long way in securing your card information when shopping online.