Walmart's "Love, Earth" Jewelry Should Be Called "Exploitation, Pollution"

As Valentine's Day approaches, Walmart is kicking up the marketing of their "Love, Earth" jewelry line as an eco-friendly, worker-friendly option for cupid. But the name "Love, Earth" is deceiving, as there have been significant environmental and labor abuses in the mining and production of the line. Walmart needs to clean up their act, or else change the name of their new jewelry line to something more accurate, like "Exploitation, Pollution."

A couple weeks ago, a newspaper expose revealed that Walmart's Love, Earth jewelry line loves neither the earth nor the men, women, (and sometimes kids) who make it. That's because the workers making Love, Earth jewelry have reported serious workplace abuses in the factories where the bobbles are assembled, including lack of proper health and safety equipment, like being made to file gold without a mask; verbal abuse; mandatory overtime; poverty wages; and threats of termination for any complaints about pay or conditions. There are also serious concerns in the mining of the gold used to make Love, Earth. Mines supplying Walmart in Nevada and Utah have been cited for environmental abuses, including water pollution, acid mine drainage, and mercury pollution, as well as failing to respect workers' rights. That's definitely not love.

Luckily, environmental, community and worker protection organization Earthworks has launched a campaign holding Walmart accountable for their misleading marketing. What they're asking is simple: If Walmart is selling jewelry marketed as friendly to workers and the environment, it should actually be friendly to workers and the environment. That means as a signatory to the No Dirty Gold campaign's Golden Rules of Responsible Sourcing, Walmart should live up to their promises not to sell gold mined by exploited workers or that pollutes the environment. And they should at the very least abide by Bolivian labor laws at the factories where their jewelry is produced.

But Earthworks and hundreds of Change.org members both think Walmart can do better than that. An "ethical" line of jewelry should go above and beyond obeying local laws. It should include transparency in labor and environmental standards and a concrete strategy to improve both when they fall short. And of course, it should live up to its name, and show love to the people who make it at every stage -- from mining to manufacturing -- as well as the environment in which it's produced.

You can join the campaign asking Walmart to ensure their Love, Earth jewelry actually lives up to it's name, and loves the people, communities, and places where it's made.

Photo credit: Somma