DIVA PLATES
Frequently asked questions
Diva Plates tries to be as environmentally friendly as possible. We try to use as many recycled and eco products in our packaging and in the making of our products and we will continue to always find ways to improve on this.
Being a small Australian business ourselves, we believe in supporting other Australian businesses - especially small ones. Unless impossible, all of our products are designed, created and made in Australia.
Our Diva melamine plates unfortunately fell in to the impossible to be made in Australia category. We tried and tried and researched and researched ways of producing these plates in Australia, but it was not possible to do in a remotely cost effective way. With the plates having to be made overseas, in China, we selected a manufacturer that had already implemented and was striving to continually improve their environmental policies and credentials.
We decided to go with microfibre and not cotton after a great deal of research. Although microfibre is inorganic and does not biodegrade, it does have plenty of green credentials on its side.
Although cotton is biodegradable, environmentally speaking, the cotton industry is one of the dirtiest in the world. The cotton industry uses large amounts of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and these end up polluting the waterways, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and ruin the soil. Cotton is also a large contributor to water scarcity. It takes over 5,000 gallons of water to produce enough cotton to make just one t-shirt! And organic cotton uses even more water than conventional cotton.
Microfibre also does not contribute to the deforestation of forests.
Microfibre can be washed 200-300 times before starting to lose its effectiveness, where cotton is 20-30 times. This helps retain the quality of the printed art and strength of colour on the tea towel.
Therefore, when considering all these factors, we decided to go with the microfibre tea towels.