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Not the way most people would like to be described. But, for me it’s a perfect label, because earlier this year I launched a new venture called USELESS that I believe might push people to rethink their power as consumers.

USELESS is a line of consumer products that help people use less of the planet’s natural resources, and at the same time give more to people in the developing world who lack the very basics needed to sustain healthy lives. USELESS gives a proportion of profits to clean water and sanitation projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The USELESS tote bag, for instance, is made of recycled ad billboards and tire inner tubes, the USELESS reusable water bottle is made of BPA-free plastic and the USELESS hoodie is made of 100% organic cotton. And very unusually, all of our products are made in the USA. I wanted each thing each thing we sell to have as small an environmental impact as possible, and shipping things in from coal-powered factories overseas just doesn’t make sense. Everything USELESS does is designed to use less. The packaging materials, for instance, are 100% post consumer and the larger items are shipped in boxes that have printed on them: “This is a useless box. Please reuse it.”

I know that buying USELESS products will not single-handedly solve the problem of too much unnecessary consumption, but think that if people can at least question what they buy and the impact it has, then that’s a good thing. They will have become conscious consumers. USELESS isn’t saying, “don’t do this or do that,” it’s providing cool, utilitarian, well-made products that happen to help people use less. Even if they just buy a USELESS tee because they like the design, they will still be helping the planet. Helping not just because the tees are made in the USA or organic cotton, but also because the purchase of each product helps fund developing world water and sanitation projects. Ten per cent of profits go directly to fund projects to build water wells and toilet facilities to reduce the chance of disease. On the website, useless.org, people can see exactly where their money’s going, down to the specific village it will fund. Every seventeen seconds a child under five dies from a disease because of poor sanitation, and that’s just tragic, especially when here in the developed world we use so much stuff we just don’t need.

To get the message out there I’m doing a giveaway of USELESS products for readers of the wonderful greenandcleanmom.org. All you need to do is visit useless.org and post a comment saying what your favorite USELESS product is, making sure you mention you are a reader of greenandcleanmom.org and I’ll randomly pick one who’ll receive a USELESS gift set, perfect for the holidays. The gift set has in it a water bottle, baseball cap and notebook. Perfect for the kids!

www.useless.org

Mark Simmons, USELESS CEO and co-founder.