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New Products Available

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

We have new products arriving in the fall for the holiday shopping season. We will be introducing 3 new items which are synthetic versions of our very popular -

European Shopping Cart (C1787NRL).

Farmer's Market Cart

Euro Farmer's Market Cart

These will be offered in a Natural Honey (similar to this item’s color), Dark Brown (similar to this item’s color), and Dark Grey (similar to this item’s color). These are food and water contact safe and it is a perfect cart to use at Farmers Markets. They can be left outdoors. They are also perfect for merchandising, and because it has wheels, can be easily moved around. Care and maintenance is a breeze. These are 100% recyclable and very durable.

Any one of our items can be made in a synthetic version. If you or your customers have a requirement for material that is outdoor, UV, food, and water contact safe, please feel free to send us your requests. We can customize the size, shape, and color to your needs.

To pre-order, please contact us right away.

New RED Shelf Baskets have arrived (E6468RDG):

These shelf baskets are available in various sizes and they nest. The are rectangular with cut-out handles. They are hand woven, rattan and rattan coil in a lombok weave pattern. The baskets are stained, NOT painted, with an eco-friendly water based stain.

Shelf Baskets in RED - lombok weave - eco-friendly water based stain

Shelf Baskets in RED - lombok weave - eco-friendly water based stain

Please click on the item to get detail specifications. The item numbers are:

  • E6468RDG – A set of six (6). A discount is given when ordering as a set
  • E 6468RDL – Large (1 included in the set)
  • E6468RDM – Medium (1 included in the set)
  • E6468RDS – Small (2 included in the set)
  • E6468RDP – Mini (2 included in the set)

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Switching to water based stains

Friday, February 19th, 2010

This year, our suppliers and manufacturers have switched to water based stains and colors. We are very excited about this change as it further enables us to be green in a very real sense. We know that this process is continuous and it is not going to happen over night but we are very pleased with the progress so far. These water based items will be phased into our product line over the rest of this year. Any product that has a dark stain or color will water based.

We are also looking at using recyclable, re-usable, returnable corrugated plastic shipping boxes rather than 1 time use cardboard boxes.  Cardboard boxes can be made with recycled content but it is still 1 time use and causes significant more energy use and much of that still ends up in the landfill. This is significantly more challenging. One of the biggest challenges is to ensure getting the boxes back to us from various customer locations in a cost effective and environmentally way. There is shipping cost involved so we have to find a way to collect sufficient quantities before it can be returned back from our customer locations. This  is one reason that we will probably want to work with our largest accounts in a closed loop environment to test this first. This will be a long process and we are still in the early stages of checking the viability of making this work. It is definitely or goal to make this happen as long as it is cost effective AND environmentally friendly. Both objectives need to be met. However, in the long run this is another way to move towards being genuinely green.

Similarly, we encourage our customers, many of whom are green retailers, to not only increase their green and eco-friendly products but also merchandise using eco-friendly products.

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What makes our products better?

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Everyone says that their quality is better, I know. The reason our quality is better is that the material we use is a “full reed”, not flat reed or strips. Nor do we use willow. Flat reeds are basically the natural rattan mateial cut in half to make it cheaper but also is less durable and looses its strength. What does this mean?

Take a look at this – http://ecodisplayware.com/blog/green/a-closeup-look-at-our-product-quality/. You will notice the detail of the materials. This is rattan. Willow does not have the strength, it is flimsy and can break down quickly. Willow also tends to be a flat reed. Our products will last 2 to 3 times longer when compared to other products made with willow or half reed rattan. You may pay less for the cheaper material but you end up replacing it more frequently; perhaps 2 to 3 times not to mention the cost of labor.

Our floor baskets for example can hold 50-60 lbs. Try that with willow or stripped or half reed rattan.

These are hand made and using full reed requires a lot of strength to bend and weave into a product. Our products sustain many families in villages all across Indonesia and the Philippines. This is how they make their living and send their kids to college. More about our labor practices in the next post.

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Gen2 RFID tags for eco-packaging

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

http://www.pcworld.com/article/170013/rfid_to_help_keep_the_worlds_mail_on_time.html?tk=rss_news

With these new passive RFID tags, the cost of inventory management and potentially delivery of goods in eco-packaging will get cheaper. Right now, a lot of packaging gets thrown away after 1 use. We envision a world where all cardboard boxes are replaced by recyclable and reusable packaging but this is a tremendous logistical problem since you have ensure that this packaging gets returned back to the sender. Having a way to track it cheaply and get it returned means that we can reduce our waste of cardboard boxes and pallets thereby saving a lot of trees. In the long term, this will reduce the overall costs of packaging. The cost of recyclable, returnable, packaging needs to take into account the cost of the return transportation.

How would this work?

  • Any size and shape packaging can be made using a flat pack model and embedded with these new RFID passive tags. The packaging should be made from recyclable material that is durable. This applies to pallets as well.
  • The packaging is used to ship goods. Customers are billed for the packaging along with the goods. This allows for returns of the goods or the packaging or both. If the packaging is returned, the customer is credited back. They don’t have to send the packaging to landfill. This packaging then can be re-used over and over again. The packaging has to be a flat pak so it can easily be stacked on a pallet and combined with other packaging from other customers in the region similar to the FedEx and UPS model. After enough has been collected, it can all be shipped back to their sender. Having the tags helps to know where to send it back to. A credit should be given by local governments to people who don’t send stuff to the landfill and also to businesses and customers who use recycled/returnable packaging to ship their goods. Perhaps this can be done through the issuance of carbon credits that can be applied to the expense of this packaging.
  • Manufacturers need to produce flat pack packaging that is just as easy to use as cardboard boxes with built in RFID passive tags with unique global numbers
  • A database is required to ensure who has the assigned RFID tags similar to how bar coding works.

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Our craftsmanship at work

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Our crafsmanship at work

Our crafsmanship at work

 

These craftsmen can produce tens to hundreds of units per day depending on the detail required. They often work with different size reeds (strands) of material. For many of the, this is their sole source of income and they live in remote villages. They are independant contractors. We support a fair trade policy so they can earn a living wage for their craftsmanship.

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