It has been a while since we have last posted in here. In the meantime, we have been through a lot. A number of new products have been stocked and launched on our site.
Up to now we have been a retailer of Peshtemal towel and robes. Now we have expanded our product selection and stretched our business to offer new home textile lines such as tablecloths, bedspreads and sofa throws, fully-certified organic cotton towels & robes. But the mantra is always the same: simple and natural elegance at its best!
As we have been through this change, we realised that there is a huge misconception about the definition of ‘organic’ and ‘Fairtrade’.
A product claiming to be organic might only contain a small percentage of organic cotton or may be made of organic cotton but dyed using toxic chemicals which would never be allowed in certified organic products.
To be sure a product is really organic from field to finished product, you need to look out for Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) symbol. This certificate will assure that you are buying a product fully organic throughout the whole process starting from the cotton fields to the end product strictly checking the dyeing, labelling and packaging processes to be free of pesticides, hormones and other harmful chemical products.
Everything involved in the treatment process is biodegradable. Waste water produced on the way is also treated before it is let out into the environment. The chemicals having the worst impact on the fresh water supplies are known to be caused by textile treatment and dyeing. So it is absolutely necessary to look out for this assurance certificates if you are a keen environmentalist and truly respecting the eco life hence human and animal life.
Fairtrade on the other hand is a total different story. It is more related to the local cotton farmers getting the premium price for their products to cover the cost of production and plus to help contribute the community projects like building a school, hospital or a water well. Fairtrade undoubtedly has great ethical values and it is an important step up yet it doesn’t particularly claim that their products are organic. Actually only 19% of the Fairtrade cotton is organic.
Organic cotton certification meeting the GOTS standards involves serious investments and this doesn’t come cheap. However, the more there is a demand for fully-organic cotton products, the less the cost will be. So our call for the environmentalists is to buy less probably but go more organic as part of fulfilment of our social responsibility for our world and for the future generations.
