Over the summer, a lively debate arose about how people buy cheap clothes from China and how deeply irresponsible, unsustainable, and foolish it is.
For a living, I mainly help European companies buy goods from China, but I thought I could also share with everyday consumers how to buy responsibly from China. You can buy just about anything from China—some of it is top quality, and some of it is complete crap. Usually, the quality falls somewhere between the extremes, and you have the power to influence it.
You can buy responsibly manufactured products from China, but just as with quality, the other extreme exists as well. In all fairness, both extremes can be found in Finland too.
Buying high-quality and responsible products doesn’t happen by accident, except by sheer luck. In other words, it takes planning and preparation.
Let’s assume you want to buy a Hawaiian shirt—a lightweight, floral-patterned button-down shirt. Let’s try buying one from China responsibly.
Do you really need a Hawaiian shirt? Could there already be one tucked away at the very back of your wardrobe, behind old pairs of underwear? Or is your current shirt torn? Could that small hole be sewn up and the missing button replaced? Or might there be another suitable shirt in your closet to wear instead?
If you found an alternative shirt and didn’t buy a new one, that is truly responsible and sustainable. However, you decide you really must have a new shirt, but buying from a local store is expensive. Yet, you’ve heard that buying from China is cheap.
You try to be a good person. You don’t litter, you buy green electricity, and you smile at children. You also want to consume responsibly. What actually counts as responsible consumption, however, is a more complicated question with no straightforward answer. It isn’t black and white; there are shades of gray, and you can set the bar wherever you choose.
First, the product you buy must be something that won’t end up straight in the trash. That means the garment must be the right size (is a size L in China the same as in Europe?), the right quality (durable enough for regular wear), look decent enough to wear around town (how well do the photos match reality?), and so on. Is the fabric truly organic cotton, as promised? Verifying these details from a foreign online store isn’t easy, but let’s assume you find a shirt online that you believe meets your expectations.
Does the garment manufacturer operate in line with your values? Are working conditions decent for the workers? How is the factory’s waste management handled? An individual consumer simply can’t find out these things—not even which company actually manufactures the garment. At this point, you can either close your eyes and hope for the best, place the order without worrying about these factors, or decide not to order at all. And what the heck! Place the order!
The garment is promised to be delivered from China to your door within a week. That means air freight. Air freight is the most polluting method. A ship, on the other hand, takes a month and a half to sail to Finland. So that is out of the question. You need the shirt now, not at Christmas. This equation does not really seem like the outcome would be responsible.
What a misery! Is there no alternative!? One option is to buy the shirt from a local company that inspects and audits manufacturers in China. The products are brought to your local stores slowly by sea freight, but with far less pollution. Even so, you can get the shirt quickly by picking it up at a local store, where you can check the fit and feel the quality of the product. Or order from an online store that ships the product from a warehouse located in your country. When you buy from a local store, your country’s consumer protection law protects you. Communicating with a local store is also much easier than with a Chinese seller.
Do European stores really check what happens in China? Not all of them, but the companies that invest in quality, for whom values mean something, and who protect their brand, know where and from what kinds of factories their goods come from. Good companies also engage in long-term cooperation to improve conditions in China and elsewhere.
As a consumer, you must demand quality and responsibility from companies. Often, quality and responsibility go hand in hand. Demand that companies demonstrate how they have addressed these matters.
P.S. Think before you buy. When you buy, buy quality.
