Trans-Pacific Peat Pellet
April 11, 2008
Not once, but twice the Canadian peat pellet in the above sunflower seed planting thingy crossed the Pacific ocean. Last year this item came from somewhere, presumably an inexpensive spring impulse purchase. It was lost for a year in the clutter but the sticker on the bottom of it is striking.
This little gardening toy is globalization in action. American sunflower seeds braving a trip across the Pacific to meet up with some Canadian peat before getting encapsulated in a Chinese plastic egg and shipped back across the Pacific. Thousands of miles. Probably a couple of bucks. Lost in clutter for a year and likely headed for a landfill.
Some are speculating about the end of cheap Chinese products. We’ll see.
April 11, 2008 at 7:49 am
Your T-shirt does the same thing. Cotton from TX goes to Asia to be made in to thread before being sent back to Wal-mart to be sold for $3.99
http://www.amazon.com/Travels-T-Shirt-Global-Economy-Economist/dp/0471648493
April 11, 2008 at 8:50 am
Yeah all right cotton and textiles and clothing and such build some frequent cargo miles - but as they say in French the pastiles de tourbe are also traveling the globe? Is there anything that can’t or isn’t or hasn’t been shipped across the Pacific a couple of times on it’s way to becoming a consumer good?
May 22, 2008 at 10:49 pm
[...] BleedSnoot has previously noted, t-shirt’s typically go from Texas to Asia and back again for a couple bucks. Most people [...]