I recently read a post about Greenwashing. The point of this post is not to provide you with detailed information about greenwashing, that is for Google search! The Environmental Blog has great summary.While shopping this weekend, I saw a lot of "eco-friendly" items. However, I did not really know why they were considered eco-friendly and if the claims they were making on the box were true. I have learned over the past year that to truly understand what you are buying, you have to do a lot of research beforehand. For example, I was looking at a pair of shoes. The box looked like it was made of recycled content. The print was green. Even after looking at the box for a minute or so, I assumed that these shoes were right up my "green alley!" After reading the description to get more information about what was truly eco-friendly about these shoes, I came up with NOTHING! The description said that the company cares about the comfort of your feet. Yes, I care about the comfort of my feet also, but my feet care about eco-friendly products!
Basically, read the description of the product you are buying. Research the company online. Do not put your hard-earned money toward a product that has been greenwashed. Perform the due diligence so that you know you are buying products that are healthy for you and for the environment.
Yeah, a lot of the products that I used to buy with confidence I later found out to be greenwashed. So disappointing! Now, I just try to buy the "lesser of two evils"--if there's a legit green version of something, I'll buy that. But if my choices are greenwashed vs. conventional, I go with greenwashed just because I feel like something is better than nothing. :/
ReplyDeleteOhkeeka - I do agree that it's better to buy something that's has been greenwashing than the completely harmful alternative. It takes a lot of research to figure out a truly green brand. I have found that sticking with local and smaller companies is a good way to avoid greenwashing.
ReplyDeleteI could get all into this but bottom line: businesses will market their products whoever they think will get them into buyers' hands. Practically every product on the shelves today is "green" or "eco" or "naturas" etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteTellytubby - I am always amazed by the amount of products that are natural or eco-friendly. It's a joke sometimes! Nothing beats your personal research.
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