Lots of products we sell could be described as ‘eco-friendly’, including those which are recycled. But products don’t need to be recycled to be eco-friendly. Sustainability is a key factor when we decide which products to buy.

Like you, Shared Earth is passionate about protecting our environment and the natural world, and we are working hard to reduce the environmental impact of the products we sell.

We consider the materials that make up our products, how those products are made, and how they are shipped, firstly to us and then on to you.

None of this is easy, even for the largest manufacturers, and for Fair Trade companies there are many special challenges linked to the scale of production and the availability of materials to producers in developing nations.

Our choices are sometimes quite straightforward. For example, the shift away from wood that comes from endangered species

and towards more sustainable sources, as we are doing with all the wood products we buy from India.

Sometimes the changes are invisible to the customer. We are working with our jewellery producers to ensure that any plastic beads are replaced with glass beads, for example.

Other areas are more complex. Ideally we would like to find a producer of glass suncatchers but this is not a straightforward swap of one material with another because production methods for glass are completely different to those used with plastic resin. We need to both find a reliable source of recycled glass and a way of ensuring artisans get help with retraining.

When many people think of India they think of the Taj Mahal but the sad reality is that you are as likely to see cows knee deep in plastic waste, chomping on bottles, carrier bags and discarded packaging as you are to see examples of stunning architecture. Many countries are drowning in plastic waste and so are the seas around them.

In the UK we use far more plastic than necessary, but it’s countries like Kenya, India and Chile which are setting an example by banning single-use plastic bags.