The irony- it burns, it burns. Again.

So, if you read the post about the ludicrously expensive and oh-so-fashionable eco-totes, and maybe thought, well, $960 for a Hermes shopping tote is a bit out of line, but gee, that Anya Hindmarch "I'm not a plastic bag" bag sounded neat-o, well, think again.

"However, the I'm Not a Plastic Bags are actually even less "green" than customers realised: they were made in China, using cheap labour, from non-fair trade, non-organic cotton - a fabric as environmentally damaging as plastic. Petra Kjell, campaigner with the Environmental Justice Foundation, says: "Cotton accounts for 16 per cent of global insecticide releases - more than any other single crop. Of the $2bn of chemical pesticides used on cotton crops each year, at least $819m are considered toxic enough to be classified as hazardous by the World Health Organisation. Aldicarb is one of the most toxic pesticides applied to cotton, yet it is also the second-most used pesticide in global cotton production. One teaspoonful of aldicarb on the skin would be sufficient to kill an adult."

Sainsbury's issued a statement saying it had "never claimed the bag was fair trade or organic. The point of the bag is that it can be re-used, thereby saving millions of plastic bags from being used in future years. The bag was designed to raise awareness of the issue of the abusive use of disposable plastic bags, a goal which it has achieved internationally, beyond anyone's expectations". However, many shoppers reported that their I'm Not a Plastic Bag purchase was handed to them in... a plastic bag." LINK