Greenwashing is claiming that a product is environmentally friendly when in reality it is not. One can argue that copy paper with 10% post-consumer recycled content is not too eco-friendly since 90% of the product is still virgin material. Is this product “greener” than paper that has no recycled content? The answer depends on the amount of energy it takes to create virgin products and the amount needed to recycle products. In the interest of labeling green items more accurately, AEF would like to propose the term,“Pretty Much Environmentally Friendly, Almost”(PMEFA).
Another product that can be considered PMEFA is paint containing low volatile organic compounds rated at 50 grams per liter or less of toxic stuff. So now substance-abusing individuals will have to sniff paint for up to 15 minutes longer before lightheadedness ensues, which may deter them from the practice altogether or force them to experiment with another product.
(Environmentally Friendly, Almost)
Pictured here is a plastic bottle that is not completely claiming to be an environmentally-friendly product; however, it is still alluding to the idea that it is essentially “less bad” because its bottle cap uses less plastic! The caps are still plastic, and so is the bottle, but that’s beside the point. The point is that there is a green leaf on the label before the statement, “Smaller Cap = Less Plastic”. Yay!
Now we’ll feel much better when smaller pieces of plastic end up in our streams and oceans. Not only can nature take thousands of years to break down plastic, it also breaks it down into smaller, toxic pieces that can more readily enter the digestive tracts of wildlife. For instance, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Ocean, where trash collects in a manner similar to how bubbles collect in the middle of a Jacuzzi, is a sea of plastic pieces and other materiels, and the Patch’s very existence contributes to the disastrous dietary mistakes of wildlife.
(Thinking they are collecting food, wildlife consume plastics floating in the Ocean)
Perhaps another slogan may read “Smaller Cap = Laxative for Wildlife”.
Although the “less bad” approach towards environmentalism may be a step in the right direction and may save companies money by reducing material costs, it falls short in delivering real benefits for the long- term health and vitality of our planet.
Discounting the energy used to create the products, some examples of eco-friendly products include:
- Stainless steel water bottles (take the time to refill in order to avoid using plastic)
- Hemp or bamboo clothing using soy-based ink (hemp and bamboo are rapidly renewable resources)
- Solar cell phone chargers (hopefully made from recycled plastic)
- Reclaimed wood flooring
- Reusable grocery bags
- Anything that does not contain plastics, petrol chemicals, VOCs, virgin non-renewables, etc. (finding such products is easier said than done)
The green economy is still in its infancy, and finding quality products with no negative environmental impacts is difficult given that many inedible products, unlike processed food, do not have ingredient lists; however, when assessing a product that claims to be eco-friendly, one must ask, is this truly environmentally friendly, or is it “pretty much environmentally-friendly, almost”?
