Economic globalization in its current form risks exacerbating poverty and increasing violence if not unchecked.

Joseph Stiglitz - former Cheif Economist, World Bank, 1997-2000

The current form of economic globalization is termed Free Trade or neoliberalism. It is the international condition by which no restrictions are placed by a government or governments on the ability of business to import or export. It is driven by the search for the lowest possible production cost and the highest possible profit. The alternative to Free Trade is called Fair Trade it is driven by social, cultural and environmental sustainability.

According to Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia, from Corporate Watch, Free Trade is about making trade between nations easier. It is about freer movement of goods, resources and enterprise in a bid to always find cheaper resources, to maximise profits and efficiency. It promotes the 'trickle down effect' of economic growth.

Unfortunately, Free Trade, or the constant search for greatest profit and efficiency is not often compatible with social justice, human rights, access to equality of education and opportunity and environmental sustainability. Simply, because these are goals for the greater good and can be in direct conflict to achieving lowest production costs with greatest output.

The International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) states that Fair Trade, in contrast, is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers.

Fair Trade is more than just trading: it proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first.

The primary aims and objectives of Fair Trade are:

Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers

Fair Trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system.

Transparency and accountability

Fair Trade involves transparent management and commercial relations to deal fairly and respectfully with trading partners.

Capacity building

Fair Trade is a means to develop producers’ independence. Fair Trade relationships provide continuity, during which producers and their marketing organizations can improve their management skills and their access to new markets.

Payment of a fair price

A fair price in the regional or local context is one that has been agreed through dialogue and participation. It covers not only the costs of production but enables production which is socially just and environmentally sound. It provides fair pay to the producers and takes into account the principle of equal pay for equal work by women and men. Fair Traders ensure prompt payment to their partners and, whenever possible, help producers with access to pre-harvest or pre-production financing.

Gender Equity

Fair Trade means that women’s work is properly valued and rewarded. Women are always paid for their contribution to the production process and are empowered in their organizations.

Working conditions

Fair Trade means a safe and healthy working environment for producers. The participation of children (if any) does not adversely affect their well-being, security, educational requirements and need for play and conforms to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the law and norms in the local context.

The environment

Fair Trade actively encourages better environmental practices and the application of responsible methods of production.

From city streets to mountain tracks, they blow uselessly across every landscape. Especially in poorer nations of the world where garbage collection, let alone recycling services, are inadequate or non-existent. The plastic shopping bag has become an environmental disaster.

But not for an innovative non-profit organisation from Delhi, India. The story began in 1999, when the Delhi government launched a campaign called Bhagidari, asking anyone interested to participate in government civic initiatives, a husband and wife team came forward to take up the challenge. The couple wanted to work on energy efficiency, but they found that most people were obsessed with one major issue: how to manage their garbage. So they started a non-government, non-profit organisation explaining how waste could be segregated and made proper use of thereafter. Wet kitchen waste could be turned into compost; dry waste like paper and glass could be recycled.

With a grant of Rs 3,50,000 from the United States Agency for International Development, the couple began holding seminars and workshops advocating waste management. They formed a network of resident welfare associations from different colonies in Delhi and began a pilot project in a small suburb in east Delhi, Madhuban, where they lived.

It was whilst segregating the waste that they encountered their most important challenge. "We had heard of organisations working with zero waste— it was something we could not understand. Despite our best efforts there was nothing we could do with the mounds of discarded plastic bags. The resale value of polythene is very low, so we started to experiment." That proved to be the turning point.

They washed the plastic bags, braided, rolled them and made them into tiny baskets. But it involved a lot of work, and the couple didn't see a market for their products. Still, it forced them to work harder to find a solution for the mounds of smelly discarded plastic bags.

Every day, in a small R&D lab in the couples home, the husband was an engineer, a team of volunteers experimented to find innovative ways of disposing or recycling the plastic bags. Finally, a college student exploring India on a 'gap year' from a US college, along with some other volunteers, hit upon the idea of washing, drying and pressing the plastic into sheets, using a pressing machine. The result: they came up with small plastic sheets, roughly 12" by 7". It was the breakthrough they had all been waiting for. From here on it was left to everyone's imagination.

A designer friend of the couple volunteered to make a few sample handbags. Most people they were shown to found it difficult to believe they were made from discarded plastic bags. The recycled plastic bags were sold tentatively at local stores, along with wallets, folders and file covers.

The couple wanted to do more than just make a recycled product they also wanted to help disadvantaged communities int heir area. "For the whole process to make a difference, we needed to involve communities. That is when we began working in Narela Gaon, a relocated village on the Delhi-Haryana border where people were living in extreme poverty." The couple and thie rsmall team of volunteers went from house to house asking women to work for them by collecting used plastic bags and washing them. It was better paid than other work available and it helped supplement the meagre income of these households. Soon more and more women joined in, collecting plastic bags from the garbage and washing them.

But the bags were being sold in only a few stores locally so the couple decided to find larger markets overseas and export them. Today the bags made from recycled plastic bags are sold internationally, in America, Europe and by Trash Bags here in Australia.

Expanding their market and therefore their production came with many demands. The couple found that export orders came in bulk—in one style and colour. This was a challenge. "We found that it became very difficult to get in touch with the women of Narela Gaon, as there were no telephones, and manning both the collection and production points became problematic. Most of the time the women could not deliver the particular colour of plastic required, and that was a problem. We do not use any dye for our sheets—all the colours come from the discarded plastic bags that are arranged to form a pattern and unique colour scheme when pressed."

The couple then decided to also work with rag-pickers close to their home in Madhuban. The road to Madanpur Khadar goes past the swampy rundown Yamuna canal—a clogged and dying stretch of water where people defecate and wash, and pigs wallow. The smell hits you as soon as you enter the colony, where you see trucks lined up, loaded with discarded newspapers, bottles and plastic oil cans. "While we worked at Narela Gaon, the government's response was favourable, but when we began working with the rag-pickers we faced animosity. We were told we were doing illegal activity with illegal immigrants on illegal ground.

The couple insisted on working with the rag pickers regardless. "The rag-pickers are the most marginalised section of our society. If the government thinks they are illegal immigrants they should be penalised. If not, they should be allowed to live with dignity and given the opportunity to make a good life."

At dawn every day the rag-pickers deliver the recycled plastic shopping bags to the non-profits headquarters. The handles and bottoms of the plastic bags are snipped away and the open sheets washed with detergent on a cemented buffalo water trough. They are hung to dry on a clothesline and then layered together and pressed to make sheets that are designed, cut and stitched to make the amazing, environmentally friendly and ethical bags.

The non-profit NGO currently export around 4,000 bags a month, they use the money made from the sale of the bags to fund projects to help the rag-pickers and other marginalized sections of their community.