Evolving Into Something Great

Wow. A mention by name and photo in yesterday's CNN.com story 'Eco-fashion: Transforming trash into treasures' made for quite a busy day around here.
Joyce Justicz deserves a lot of credit for Reiter8's mention. She is the owner of Evolve Boutique in Atlanta, Georgia who has stocked Reiter8 bags and pillows since they opened. She is as cheerful as they come and a wonderful spokeswoman for fashionable upcycled products. She comments at the beginning of the video segment. (If you look quick and close you can see a blue star Reiter8 pillow on the shelf behind her!)

I thought the article was interesting. I had always wondered where all the wrappers came from for those Ecoist bags! (watch the video and find out!) I did notice that the comments seemed to focus on a small negative part of the story (Timbuk2 using fused plastic bags some of which have the Target logo and Targets legal issue with it) rather than the spirit of the article which was how people are reusing materials creatively in an effort to be eco friendly.

I must weigh in and say that it's a real effort to use reclaimed materials. It's much more time consuming to seek them out not to mention prepping them. I'm glad I do it though. I've never used a more interesting material and met better people throughout the process. My foremost intent always is to have a positive impact on the environment. And the rest (not without some effort, though!) seems to fall into place.
(photo credit: Ashley Preskar/CNN)