tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5486758478298250026.post4606923695975318480..comments2023-09-17T05:30:03.155-07:00Comments on www.bitsandpeaces.com: The Emma MaerskJimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17906564130769891598noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5486758478298250026.post-26593818553401650762011-01-29T05:28:41.037-08:002011-01-29T05:28:41.037-08:004. shipping from China can actually use less oil t...4. shipping from China can actually use less oil than trucking within North America. Shipping expenses are ALWAYS in direct correlation to the amount of oil/energy consumed during the trip. I was talking to a guy who imports toys into Canada (and yes, he imports eco friendly wooden toys from the US, and the shifty stuff from China). He says it costs more to ship a container by truck from Oklahoma to Ottowa, than it costs to ship a container from a Chinese factory to Ottawa. This means that less energy is being consumed per container on a boat from China than on a truck or train from Oklahoma. Joanne didn't buy the rattle (made in Nova Scotia by the Toy Maker of Luneburg) because it was wrapped in plastic, which probably uses less oil than what is used for shipping from China.<br /><br />Which brings me to point 5. It is so hard to figure out what the actual foot print of any given item is nowadays, that it is really hard to compare different items with each other. Every step along the manufacturing process needs to be audited, and every person needs to be held accountable to do the best as far as sustainability goes. But not everyone cares. There is no way with how open our borders are to crap coming in from abroad, that we can ever figure out how eco friendly stuff is made.<br /><br />7. China is so far advanced as far as manufacturing techniques go, that we cannot even catch up to it anymore. The mainly get their high end machines from Germany, and use it as efficiently as they can (sadly under very inhumane circumstances). There is no way that I was using less energy in making my building blocks (although they were at least made from green energy, with local lumber, packaged in cardboard boxes).<br /><br />The problem of unsustainability is very deep routed and cannot be fixed that easily. Unfortunately, as the world becomes more and more entrenched in materialism and consumerism, money is the only bottom line that dictates almost any action in our society.<br /><br />This is a hard fight up the hill, and will only change once the economic forces of the destruction of the environment catch up with the entire system.<br /><br />Let me know what you think. It's been a hard process for me to accept what is going in, especially since I invested so much time and money into my little endeavor.<br /><br />Cheers, HansHans Eichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17386732409130937942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5486758478298250026.post-91337972060979529532011-01-29T05:28:17.978-08:002011-01-29T05:28:17.978-08:00----- sorry, my comment was too long, so I split i...----- sorry, my comment was too long, so I split it up ------<br /><br /><br />Hi Jim,<br /><br />great post. I totally hear your frustration. I thought I'd give you some insight from the view of someone who tried hard in changing some of this.<br /><br />I am the former of owner Ukoonto.com (well, I still own it, but I don't do business as such anymore). I used to make building wooden building blocks, which were sold in stores across Canada. Unfortunately, I was not able to live of the business (although it was eating me up alive) and so I pulled the plug. I often still toy with the idea of reviving it in a different form.<br /><br />On the hole journey of running this business, there were some really interesting observations I made:<br /><br />1. people usually only care about price. My blocks were priced very competitive ($54/set of 50 hard maple blocks, that beat even European and American competition), and people still found it much too expensive. <br /><br />2. green washing is very unfortunate, but it happens all the time (ie: your rubber ducky you found)<br /><br />3. I had to change my mind on plastic vs. wood. I love wood, and there are some really nice wooden toys out there (trust me, I have some of them, check out the marble runs by Cuboro, I've got one, simply beautiful). In my opinion wood is a great material, but very hard to manufacture large quantities of high quality products. Injection molding (used in plastic toys) is much easier to form into really crazy shaped items, and since most people go for flash and not for sustainability and "playability" (a lot of the plastic toys are single use toys, no imagination, the thing is only one thing and never also something else). I think if you read the book "cradle to cradle" you will understand what I mean. In our house, one of the most played with toy are Lego's: plastic. But if the plastic is the "proper stuff" there should be nothing wrong with it. I know you will cringe at this, but I used to be a hardcore enviro nut and hated plastic, but there are extremely useful and environmentally friendly ways to deal with it.Hans Eichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17386732409130937942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5486758478298250026.post-59111184176361236002011-01-26T17:13:24.411-08:002011-01-26T17:13:24.411-08:00Thank you for a very interesting post! You are so ...Thank you for a very interesting post! You are so right we could do much better, and it's so sad that we have to be investigators to buy a small present because it's almost impossible to get the proper information of the material used or where the item has been manufactured. <br />It's also shocking how much artificial and weird ingredients that's in the food we eat. Someone asked me the other day if I really believed it was true when stated that a certain product was organically grown! It's a bit like the "eco-friendly" duck - we can only do our best and hope that if more consumers would be asking questions and asking for better products we would have more choices. The few organic fruits and vegetables I can get in the local supermarket all come from USA - so I ask myself don't we grow organic crops in Quebec!?evahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08057519318936846729noreply@blogger.com