This is the first in a multi-part series examining the environmental and global impact of making and selling hoops. Over the series I will examine our current practices and what we can do to make our community not only strong in people, but strong in our ideals for truly making the world a better place.

This year Hyperbola has been working hard to develop and improve the hoops we sell. As I’ve been ordering supplies such as tubing, tape, wire, LEDs, batteries and the like, it got me thinking about where all these materials come from, and where they go after we’ve sold them. I just can’t shake the thought that no matter how much care we take, there’s only so much we can do about where our materials are sourced, and then what people do with the hoops they buy from us.

So let’s start at the beginning (for us): ordering supplies. Even U.S. and Canadian companies have moved most of their manufacturing overseas, so it is very difficult to find plastics and electronic components that are guaranteed to be produced in environmentally-friendly ways and under humane working conditions. We buy LEDs, wire, tubing, tape, etc from U.S. or Canadian companies, and in some cases, these suppliers even specify that their wares are produced or manufactured “locally,” or at least on this continent. But of course it’s still imperfect because even if you buy LEDs or tubing made in the a first-world country, maybe the parts for the LEDs, or the chemicals for extruding the plastic were shipped from a place that doesn’t pay a reasonable wage or provide humane working conditions. (Heck, many manufacturing jobs in the USA don’t pay a living wage anymore, but that’s another story.)

I’ll admit that when I first found a “good deal” on a certain type of LED from a “US” company, I jumped at the chance to save a little money on materials. About a month later, I received a package from Hong Kong. As I soon found out, one of the reasons I had saved so much money was because the shipment was labelled a “gift” and was therefore not subject to international taxes. My post office was the one to educate me about the process, and I was lucky because I could have gotten in trouble for it. I took the necessary steps to make sure I was in compliance, and of course I didn’t order from them again. I consider myself a fairly “aware” consumer, but this really opened my eyes anew to the little ways we might be “saving money,” but really aren’t saving anything at all.

On the other end of the chain, we offer trade-ins, re-tapes and upgrades for a nominal fee (usually just the cost of materials), but it doesn’t change the fact that they are made from materials that, in some cases, can’t be recycled or composted when they, inevitably, wear out. For instance, we began making hoops before the information about exactly what type of tubing and connectors to use was readily available and we went through a bunch of R&D with connectors and tubing that didn’t work. We still have a stack of those hoops in storage because they are bowing at the connector so we can’t bring them out at festivals (lest people think that is what our current design will do), but we can’t find anywhere to recycle the materials.

And what about that waxed paper backing on the decorative tapes? It can’t be composted because the wax won’t disintegrate, and recycling centers are pretty specific about what kind of paper products can be recycled. So that adds up to miles and miles of 1″ paper backing that just goes into landfills. The list goes on and on…

I know this may be a depressing topic, but as our little subculture gains popularity, these are the things we need to consider. We may only have a small footprint now, but as we grow this kind of waste can add up. In my next segment, I will try to track down the true origins of the supplies we use to make our hoops.

Tags: community, hoop-making, LED, vendors, world

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 6:32 pm and is filed under blog, Colleen. Both comments and pings are currently closed.