A study released today by Terrachoice Environmental Marketing randomly surveyed 1,018 common consumer products ranging from toothpaste to caulking to shampoo to printers, and found that 99% were guilty of some form of “greenwashing.” They have separated greenwashing into six categories, listed below. TerraChoice President Scott McDougall says “The products we surveyed made a total of 1,753 claims, and 99% per cent committed at least one of the Six Sins of Greenwashing. During a recent audit of "bigbox" stores.
I don't get out a lot to shop… however, I have had dozens of examples sent to me and viewed 100's of examples of "false and misleading" green claims on consumable products. Simply watching "treehugger" or GRIST stories may find 1000's.
TerraChoice's own study exemplifies one problem greater than any other.
There are NO, clear, relevant or constant standards that focus on protecting both the consumer and environment.
NO NEW standards need to be made. If these consumer products simply fell under FDA, OSHA, EPA, DOT and WHMIS standards… no consumer would be in the dark.
The problem is, then there would be no need for "green marketing" companies and "green" product branding as it WOULD and SHOULD be the law to protect consumers.
Sorry, with the millions of Americans homes tainted with toxic toy's, cleaners, food and cosmetics… it is about time we made this a solid law.
I do not need a "survey" to tell me 80%* of consumers would buy products that were "actually" safer for them and the environment.
These people were told that the toys they buy their children were "safe" and regulated by "standards".
I don't believe any "fuzzy & feel good" label Language can satisfy safety aspects of a product.
JUST start enforcing what is already know to be hazardous from these products.
And if "terrachoice's" standard protects better than all existing standards, I am sure that federal regulators would be happy to adopt it as the "industry standard" as they did with the paint industry.
Find Consumer sources for safer products and labels:
http://www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov
