Interview With Guilt Free Tee, a Family-Run Business
First, introduce your company to us and tell us about your motivation for establishing it.
I am Chris, the founder and representative for Guilt Free Tee Ltd. The fast fashion industry is rapidly becoming one of humankind's worst polluters. Landfills are overflowing with clothing made from plastics and harmful carcinogens.
We envision a future where clothing does not harm the planet or its inhabitants.
To combat this growing problem, we have a fully carbon-negative setup, as the products we offer are fully organic and natural. We also plant trees along with every order.
The base material in our products is organic cotton. When organic cotton grows it heals the soil, as it saturates the soil with necessary nutrients that traditional cotton and pesticides destroy.
What is your most important concern for the planet and the environment?
The main concern is deforestation and plastic pollution.The plastics industry excels when it comes to ‘fast fashion’ where plastics are melded together and weaved into clothing. Although this seems like a sustainable option for most, it does not help the long-term plastic pollution. This is because, no matter how many times plastic is recycled, it will still end up in a landfill and in our water table.This is the reason why we do not use synthetic plastics in our clothing or packaging.
One of your beautiful works is that you plant a sapling with each product order, tell us about your motivation.
Not only do trees help to improve the health of soil but they also filter the air that we breathe. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution over 50% of the world's forests have been destroyed and only recently have very few charities begun planting trees with donations. For this reason, Guilt Free Tee plant a tree every order as we want to be part of the solution to deforestation and not part of the problem.
Tell us about your global activities.
At the moment we are only based in the UK with future plans of expanding. However, our activities of planting trees and healing the soil will help to benefit globally.
Have the policies of the British government been effective in fighting environmental pollution?
As it currently stands our government has made attempts to bring awareness around our expanding environmental issues. However, these efforts have been lacklustre. We believe that it should be a goal of our governing bodies to begin replacing the endangered native species of plants and trees.
