Ecosponge
The fair way to clean your frame!

Ecosponges soften and expand in water to make a great general bike and frame cleaning sponge. The Ecosponge is the World's first fair trade bicycle product, and forms part of the Eco Rider Deluxe set.

What is 'fair trade'?

Fair trade doesn't apply to things produced in 'developed' countries, where workers rights are already high, or products from large factories where a different set of labour codes are applied. Fair trade applies generally to processed farm products, and things made by hand. Like coffee, or little wood toys for example.

There are ten principles of fair trade, listed here. Its basically about not just treating workers well, but giving them long term prospects to alleviate poverty.

Again, lots of bike products made in Taiwan don't need fair trade certification - they're are made in factories on large production lines. Fair trade production applies to 'poor marginalized producers' making products largely by hand, or by growing them. (A fair factory adheres to the principles set out by the UN's International Labour Organization with rules on forced over time, safety, actually getting paid and so on. These are similar but different to fair trade principles, though there is some cross over).

We're lucky in the EU that a minimum wage and national security exists, so that's why the term 'fair trade' isn't usually applied to products made in fully industrialized countries.

Receiving a fair income from fair trade products means extra cash to save for a rainy day (literally if a monsoon ruins your crop for example) to buy food, investment in education, environmental sustainability and a host of other things you can find on the World Fair Trade Organization website. Basically, its about breaking the cycle of poverty.

The Ecosponge is grown from a plant in the Philippines. The plant its grown from is indigenous, and is grown alongside other plants in the forest in a sustainable way. This is good for the environment, and the workers:

Why not use a natural sea sponge? Apparently too many people want sponges from the bottom
of the sea, and people taking too many is damaging the ecosystem in various places.
So growing sponges using fair trade principles is the way forward, rather than using sea sponges.

How to use the Ecosponge

1. Soak in a bucket of water for 1 minute. Watch it soften and expand
2. Apply Green Clean bike cleaner to your frame
3. Clean off dirt with your Ecosponge, rinsing it out regularly

After use, dry out your Ecosponge inside or in the sun.

How is Ecosponge green?



- Its made using fair trade principles
- It doesn't contain petrochemicals
- It can be composted at the end of its life
- The card label is made of 100% recycled card

Fair trade principles include environmental sustainability.
- afterall, we all rely on the environment at the end of the day. .

Recycling information

The Ecosponge label is thin card, easily recycled.
The Ecosponge itself is compostable. If you don't have a compost bin, you can just bury it!

Why is there a picture of a sheep on the label?
You get to see a lot of sheep when riding, and a Baah Code is more entertaining than just a bar code!