Recycle Me at Drew’s Eatery

Last night, I had the great pleasure of visiting Drew’s Eatery, an eco-friendly eatery in Chicago. Andrew Baker, the warm and friendly owner, offers a tasty menu with a special emphasis on organic, local and natural foods. The menu meets the need of omnivores, vegetarians and vegans. This local hot spot attracts all types, but particularly friendly faces, families and other like-minded eco-friendly business owners.

As a matter of fact, Recycle Me, a green business that offers 100% organic cotton clothing, held an event last night at Drew’s restaurant. Often times, you will find Drew wearing one of their eco-friendly t-shirts. I definitely didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of purchasing such meaningful and clean clothing, so I went Eco Chick!

Here is an excerpt from Recycle Me’s Web site that answers the question, ” Why Organic Cotton?”

• The U.S. grows about 14 million acres of cotton, 20% of the world’s supply.  Next to corn, cotton is the largest agricultural product in the United States.  Why should you care?  In 2000, farmers in the main USA cotton growing state used over 75 million pounds of pesticides!  That’s going into your soil, your air, and your water supply.
• Worldwide cotton fields account for 10% of all pesticide use and 25% of all insecticide use.  Each year nearly $2.6 billion worth of pesticides are applied to cotton fields worldwide.  The World Health Organization estimates that 20,000 cotton workers die each year from contamination.
• The Environmental Protection Agency considers seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton in 2000 in the United States as “possible,” “likely,” “probable,” or “known” human carcinogens (acephate, dichloropropene, diuron, fluometuron, pendimethalin, tribufos, and trifluralin).
• Conventional cotton requires intensive irrigation  (it’s very thirsty), synthetic fertilizers are applied, and the process depletes the quality of the soil due to its mono crop nature.  But remember if you switch to synthetics they can be spun with solidified petroleum – fossil fuels or pesticides on your skin. Not much of a choice.
• Organic Cotton builds strong soil, retains water more efficiently and does not use synthetic pesticides, fungicides, or insecticides. It is ecologically sustainable – good for you and the planet.
• Beyond the pesticides in the growing process, cotton is a soft natural fiber that is easily transformed into fabric and doesn’t require chemical processing to turn it into a textile.

Have you ever purchased 100% organic cotton clothing? If so, what are some of your favorites?