How Green Is Your Wedding Registry?

As wedding season approaches, socially-conscious brides and grooms will try to make their special days as eco-friendly as possible. They might buy a Canadian diamond over one from Africa. They will print their invitations on recycled paper. They will choose locally grown flowers. Some may forgo favors all together and just make donations in the names of their guests to a charity, which I always think is sweet. After all, who actually eats those chocolate covered almonds?

Recently I was clicking around a friend's wedding registry when it occurred to me that the registry is an area where even the most social-savvy couple may overlook their public commitment to being responsible. After all, when pretty water pitchers only cost $30, you have to wonder why they're so inexpensive.

Crate & Barrel was my first victim of inquiry, mostly because almost every couple I know is registered there and because I already have issues with the quality of their products. (Pick up a wine glass and it's easy to see why they only cost $4.95, on average.) One evening after work I wandered around their store in SoHo and checked out where some of their products were made. It was like taking roll at a United Nations conference. True, some things were made in the U.S., but others came from places not usually associated with cheap, factory labor, such as France.

As expected there was a litany of products from China, including the classic toaster. There were also wicker frames from Thailand. 100% Egyptian cotton sheets were made in India, not Egypt. A French press, an item I bought for a friend's wedding last year, was made in Portugal. Does that still make it French?

A curious item you can register for at Crate & Barrel is a bag of unused corks, made in China, and most likely to be used as fillers in one of the many poorly made vases on offer. Really? Unused corks? Wouldn't it be more fun just to drink a lot of wine and fill a vase with the used, purple-stained corks? Or is that too collegiate?

There was more of the same across the street at Pottery Barn, another registry favorite. My personal favorite were the Rio Glycerin Soaps, which were not made in Brazil but rather in Mexico, which as we all know doesn't have the best track record when it comes to labor laws.

I know, I know. It's all so much to think about, especially when all you want are matching platters for your next wine and cheese party. I understand. We all want nice things and it's nearly impossible to cut questionably-made goods from foreign countries out of our daily lives. It is possible, though, at least if you're aware of what you're doing. For example, over the past year or so many parents became edgy about plastic toys from China, for fear of lead paint. Because of this wooden toy makers have seen an increase in business. Changes were made, and many children may be healthier for it.

That mentality can be applied to choosing your wedding gifts. As you scan your high ball glasses and cereal bowls and request them in multiples of eight, stop and see where it's made. If you're okay with it, scan away. If not, find an alternative. You could always go high end. You'll get higher quality goods which will likely last a lifetime, albeit possibly fewer of them. And what do you need all this stuff for, anyway? You'll just end up throwing all those plates at each other when you have your first marital fight.

Let's do some simple math. Be conservative and assume that the mark-up on a $10 wine glass made in Turkey is 50%. Subtract another third for shipping, and a place like Crate & Barrel ultimately paid $3.50 for it from the manufacturer, assuming there was no bulk discount. Where in that number do you see a livable wage for the worker, after the cost of materials has been factored out? Have you also considered the air quality and other environmental issues that some of these unregulated foreign factories contribute to?

These goods also speak to a national, economic issue. The American economy is teetering on a recession, and lots of people, from journalists to bankers are headed for the proverbial bread lines. If you want to do something that's really good for the economy, choose products that were made here and let someone in a factory in Michigan keep their job. Granted, factory work anywhere is not the most mind-expanding way to spend your days, but at least in the U.S. it is regulated by laws and labor unions. As consumers, we can't know for sure how they are run in other countries.

I realize that planning a wedding comes with enough headaches, and adding on guilt about where the gifts are made is disconcerting. But if you're going to have a "green" wedding, you might as well make sure all your bases are covered, including the origins of the registry. It probably makes a bigger impact on the world at large than deciding not to hand out boxes of chocolates at the end of the night.

Comments

[MrVinegar]

" After all, when pretty water pitchers only cost $30, you have to wonder why they're so inexpensive."

$30 for a water pitcher is inexpensive? Tell that to someone living (and by living I mean just barely getting by and juggling bills so as not to get evicted) paycheck to paycheck. The title of this article should be "What yuppies can do to feel good about themselves and out-trendy their neighbor."

[fishsandwichesr2good]

Congrats Pauline! You have taken yuppie-based political correctness to unimaginable heights. I suspect you count and/or recycle your TP as well? Pathetic, elitist drivel.

[ErinDanger]

What's pathetic and elitist is ignoring the super-true fact that everything you buy has the sweat of another on it. What's pathetic and elitist is thinking that your want of a cheap wine glass is more important than the worker's need for reasonable pay and safe working conditions.

[fishsandwichesr2good]

"Sweat of another on it"?! Gee, I think I'll bring my own, clean wine glass with me from now on. What Pauline has written is a transparent call for protectionism, unionism, and collectivism. Her poorly thought through diatribe against a Turkish wine glass might get head nods at cocktail parties, but the net effect will actually be the undermining the poor Turkish worker she pretends to care about.

[noneIn2008]

You have mixed issues. You say green, but focus on foreign wages.
Let's pick Thailand as one of your listed examples. Thailand is MUCH greener than the USA. They can not afford to waste. Everything gets used and reused. Basic economics.

Now if your real point was wages. You need to instead compare the real value of wages and the total quality of life of the worker. What if I can make $2 per hour, buy all my food, my house, medical, entertainment and also send money home to my parents? And you want to stop buying the goods that pay my $2/hr, for what reason, to help save me? From what?

Oh yes, I have heard about you Americans and Europeans. You want me to be unemployed and then you can send me foreign aid and feel good about yourselves. You can hold concerts to raise money to hand out. But you take my pride of work away. You make me dependent upon your handouts. You Americans confuse me?

[Lena M]

Eat, drink, and be merry!

But forget the diamond. Anyone worth their green credentials knows about conflict diamonds, and that the diamond hype ("two months salary" etc) is just PR from the DeBeers monopoly.

Furthermore, why register for gifts at all? Sure, it makes sense for a young couple just starting a new household, but many couples marry at an age where they already have plates, glasses and more than a pair of candlesticks.

[dawlishgal]

Speaking of Chinese toasters....we had been married 38 years, and were still using an American-made toaster that was one of our wedding gifts. When it finally began to look REALLY bad because of having had too many plastic bread wrappers stuck to it (and the way I scrubbed off the gunk with steel wool).. I decided to get a new one even though the old one did what it was supposed (toast the bleeping bread) just fine. I chose a very sweet looking Chinese model , the same soft blue-green as my antique granitewear kitchen table. And I even bought a spare because the toasters were unbelievably cheap.....like 5 bucks each in a warehouse store. Well, the first one stopped working about six months ago, so I hauled out the spare. That stopped working yesterday. I suppose we'll pay twenty or thirty bucks for the replacement, and I'll bet that one won't work either.

We have bought at least 6 phones (for our 3 outlets) since we moved here in November of 2006. The same thing has happened to 5 of them (so far)...one of the push buttons stops working and begins to go "blup" instead of "bleep." All were Chinese made, and it is impossible to find one that isn't..

Where is W. Edwards Deming when we need him? Oh yeah, he's gone and nobody has been able to do for China what he did for Japan.

[cylindar]

Very good advice!!

[JanSP1971]

I agree great advice, I am sending this on to my daughter. It is time we all take a look at where things are made and look at what they are made from. It takes a little more time and work but it is worth what ever it takes. We have to take care of our planet and our workers.

[Noracharles1995]

My advice - take an inventory, ask for what you truly need and will use, ask for 2 or 3 things you may not need but truly love, and mention a charity you'd like donations to in your name. The guest has the option of having an excuse to shop - which some people like to do and will, no matter what - or donating to the charity of your choice.

I was married once before and even though my current husband and I were both over 35 when we met, we still needed a few basic things and they went onto our registry. We figured it would be better to ask for what we didn't have or replacements for worn out basics vs the "pretty, fluffy" stuff the stores want you to register for but you never use. I never asked for crystal, bone china, etc. It seemed stupid when I knew I'd inherit my parents' good dishes and glasses. Over the course of the 2 weddings, I've gotten among other things pyrex baking dishes, dishtowels, potholders and lots of donations to charities in our names. These all went to good use.

[GeologyRocks]

Everything you mentioned for the socially conscious bride and groom makes sense. However, to the pragmatic socially conscious bride and groom, who know that the throwing of plates is the least of what is going to be in store for them, they should think about forgoing marriage entirely and instead dedicate the next ten years of their lives to perfuming selfless acts of charity for unappreciative people living in malarial infested swamps.

This way, they will have not only performed a valuable service for people truly in need, but they will have also instilled within themselves a strong sense of personal accomplishment that may (although not likely) immunize them from the rigors of marriage if they are ever to attempt it in the future.