Carry on camping?
Katy Brown takes a trip through the world of tents and camping equipment.
This report looks at sleeping bags
and covers all of the big brands and most smaller brands available in the
UK.
Many of the brands available in the UK are made by UK independent companies.
The consumer demand for high quality camping gear drives these companies
to strive for excellence in product design, producing increasingly higher
specification equipment and delivering excellent customer service. However,
most of these companies don’t appear to give a second thought to the
people who actually make their products.
The majority of tents and other camping gear is now manufactured in the
Far East with its associated workers’ rights problems. Of the companies
covered only four - Vaude, Blacks Leisure Group (Blacks and Eurohike), VF Corporation (North Face) and The
Pentland Group (makers of Berghaus, owned by Robert Stephen Holdings) -
have a code of conduct for workers at supplier companies. These companies
only receive half marks however, as their supplier factories are not independently
monitored, so there is no guarantee that these policies are upheld. In the
case of Blacks and VF, the minimum age for employees is fourteen if the
law of the manufacturing country permits. ECRA considers the employment
of anyone under 15 to be child labour. Other than this, the three policies
do meet ECRA’s criteria. The Pentland Group is also a member of the
ETI, meaning they have adopted the ETI base code of conduct and implemented
it in their supply chains. Progress reports on their implementation and
improvements to labour practices are also required, but not published.
According to Martin Hearson, Campaign Coordinator from Labour Behind the
Label “tents and other outdoor gear are often sourced from overseas
subcontractors who use cheap labour. They come especially from the growing
economy of China, where workers are not able to form and join trade unions
of their own choosing. There’s little evidence that the outdoor companies
have taken any steps whatsoever to safeguard the rights of workers producing
them, which is a great shame.”
Unlike the influx of ‘cheap’ clothes available on the high street,
the low price of which tends to reflect the treatment of the workers that
manufacture them, tents and camping equipment come at a higher price. Even
the most basic tents cost in the region of forty pounds, and it is not uncommon
to pay £200 or more for a good quality high specification tent. The
cost of fair labour practices could therefore easily be absorbed by the
companies making them without a large drop in profits, and as consumers
are willing to pay these prices it is not inconceivable that they would
be prepared to pay for the costs of fair labour practices through marginal
price increases.
Chemicals
Many sleeping bags are advertised as having teflon coatings, which are made
of perfluorinated chemicals (PCOs) which accumulate in protein and can build
up to high levels in the human body and in wildlife. Recent studies suggest
PCOs may cause birth defects, developmental problems, liver damage and affect
the neuroendocrine system. The US Environmental Protection Agency considers
PCOs to be carcinogenic.(1)
Oeko Tex 100
Products marketed with the Oeko Tex Confidence in Textiles label are certified
as having been tested for pesticides and are free from allergenic or carcinogenic
dyes, chlorinated phenols and heavy metals, formaldehyde, organochlorines
and biologically active finishes and have skin friendly pH.
The Oeko Tex mark is not used frequently in the UK. Of all the brands covered,
Vaude, made by the German company of the same name, is the only one to have
any Oeko Tex certified products. Of the products covered in this report,
its sleeping bags are certified. Its clothing range, which includes shirts
and underwear is also certified.
Environmentally Unaware
Despite marketing their products to those who love the great outdoors, none
of the companies have environment reports, with the exception of Vaude which
did respond demonstrating a reasonable understanding of its impacts on the
environment and some targets for improvement. It claims to have “developed
the first 100% recyclable waterproof jacket, produced from a pure polyester
that can easily be fully recycled to produce new clothing.” Denoted
by the ”Ecolog” label on Vaude products, Vaude also gives the
license for the Ecolog label to other clothing manufacturers.
Down-Filled Sleeping Bags
Down is the soft layer of feathers closest to the bird’s skin, primarily
in the chest region. They are highly valued for use as filling, as they
lack quills. Most down and feathers are removed from birds during slaughter.
Some birds such as geese from breeding flocks and those raised for meat
and foie gras, may be live-plucked. Countries that carry out the cruel practice
of live-plucking, pull as much as five ounces of feathers and down from
each bird every six weeks from the time they are 10 weeks old until they
are 4 years old.
A commonly sought-after down is Eider down. This comes from Eider ducks
which are a protected species. Farmers in Iceland gather the feathers that
the female Eider ducks pluck from their breasts to insulate their eggs in
the nest. By taking these feathers, the farmers are removing important insulation
that the eggs need in order to hatch. The feathers from at least 80 nests
are required to fill just one duvet.
According to Kelly Slade, Animal Aid Campaigns Officer, “plucking
the feathers from live birds causes them considerable pain and distress.
Even feathers taken from the bodies of birds killed for the meat trade are
products of suffering. Intensively reared ducks and geese spend their lives
packed into sheds. Denied their freedom, they have no access to water in
which to swim. There is no need to use down or feathers when synthetic materials
are far more effective and cruelty free.”
With the exception of Ted Baker, all the companies on the table with marks
in the Other Animal Rights column sell down-filled sleeping bags.
Alternatives
In many ways simply buying second hand is the simplest and most accessible
way of avoiding the uncertain workers’ rights implications of buying
new camping gear. A quick search on Ebay revealed hundreds of second hand
tents, rucksacks and sleeping bags up for sale, many of them high specification
and at much reduced prices. Even better, why not become part of the ‘Freecycle’
network and get your gear for free from someone else who doesn’t want
it any more. Visit www.freecycle.org to find your local group. You’ll
need to sign into the online forum and then you will receive posts from
people offering things they don’t want any more. You can also post
requests for things you want.
Although we found many mentions of the fact that PET plastic bottles can
be recycled to make fibre for filling sleeping bags, we could not find any
products on the market. Apparently, 40 two-litre soft drink PET bottles
are needed to make the recycled fibrefill of one sleeping bag. That’s
a lot of bottles to save from the landfill.
Links
- Labour Behind the Label, 38 Exchange St, Norwich NR2 1AX, England,
Tel: 01603 666160, www.labourbehindthelabel.org
- Oeko-Tex Association, Secretariat Öko-Tex Association, Gotthardtstrasse
61, CH-8027 Zurich, Tel: +41 1 20642 35, www.oeko-tex.com
- World Wildlife Fund Chemicals and Health Campaign, www.wwf.org.uk/chemicals
- Freecycle, www.freecycle.org
- Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent
TN9 1AW Tel: 01732 364546, www.animalaid.org.uk
References
1 Bad Blood? A Survey of Chemicals in the Blood of European Ministers,
WWF Detox Campaign, October 2004