In the spirit of Earth Day many newspapers gave earth friendly tips and wrote earth friendly articles on being friendly to the earth. The paper I read most often was no exception. If there’s a bandwagon all media covers the same crap, but because they’re all owned by corporations that are owned by corporations funded by ads of corporations they can’t won’t actually give anyone useful information. It’s like each day they give you a fresh new list of things to be concerned about and then say, “Do your own damned research”. I’m not asking that they bash on certain products – just hand us a freakin’ bone and let us know about the good products damn it!
The Everett Herald wrote an article in which the title questions the “greenness” of our household products. The title actually ends in a question mark, which is a very popular trend these days. I automatically flag it as a sign of poor journalism. Not that I’m any kind of journalist, but I read articles often and I know shit when I see it. Ending a title in a question mark is a cheap way of appearing to have a new critical view of the topic at hand. I can’t emphasize enough how cheap it is. It’s like seeking quality at Wal Mart.
In this article the writer does point out that,
Earlier this year, prominent environmental group the Sierra Club announced that, starting in April, it would lend its name and label to Clorox’s Green Works products line. The environmental group’s endorsement did not come without controversy. The Sierra Club will receive an undisclosed fee, which is based partly on product sales, for its endorsement.
What what what? Clorox isn’t environmentally friendly? – OHMYGOD you’re kidding! I thought it was like lemon juice. I always drink the stuff. Oh give me a break. Who really believed that Clorox Green Works was really “green” just cause it’s in the name?
Clorox, which says its green products work as well as its traditional cleaning goods, markets its new line as 99 percent natural.
Yeah, arsenic is natural too! I’m just sayin’.
Last November, TerraChoice, an environmental marketing group, released findings on “greenwashing” — the practice of misleading consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or service. The group reviewed 1,018 products and found all but one made false or misleading green claims.
Great, which ones are the friendliest? – Nobody says. Which one is the honest one? Give me the damn answer already! I went to the TerraChoice website and didn’t see these “released findings”. I went to their blog which conveniently starts last December not November, so no info there. The article in the Herald has a picture of four products, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day lavender scent surface scrub, Seventh Generation natural citrus scent kitchen cleaner, Country Save biodegradable all-purpose cleaner and Clorox Green Works natural toilet bowl cleaner. We can cross out the Clorox – is one of the other three the honest one? Are any of them?
TerraChoice works for EcoLogo, a government eco-labeling program based in Canada.
I went to the EcoLogo website and I’ve NEVER heard of the cleaning products they list, and I’m familiar with some relatively obscure cleaning products. Maybe they’re only available in Canada.
One of the more recent blog entries on the TerraChoice website mentions the launch of greenyour.com, which looks like a good site. It doesn’t just promote all sorts of products but also gives info on making your own household cleaners – just for example. Unfortunately, they don’t let you know which green product was the most honest and they list BioKleen as a good product. BioKleen uses GSE which makes my ass twitch.
I completely agree that the process of trying to figure out which green things to buy is still entirely too difficult. That’s why accredited ecolabels like EcoLogo, which look at every aspect of product manufacturing, are so important.
Sorry you had so much trouble finding useful info on the EcoLogo site and blog. (I write the blog.) Check out “Imus Greening the Cleaning” cleaner. http://blog.terrachoice.com/2008/01/01/happy-green-new-year/.
You can buy it here:
http://www.lnt.com/sm-greening-the-cleaning-citrus-sage-all-purpose-cleaner–pi-2252393.html
I can’t answer which cleaner is the greenest of the greenest, but anything EcoLogo-certified meets very strict criteria.
Last, but not least, the TerraChoice Six Sins of Greenwashing report is available on the TerraChoice website, but it purposefully doesn’t list which products were reviewed in the November study. The idea was not to call products out in this case, but to point out how prevalent greenwashing has become.
It’s not that I didn’t find *anything* useful. I was looking for further information behind the “news” article in the local paper. My point was that the “news” was really a teaser. Like I said above, the article merely gave yet another thing for environmentally conscience people to worry about with no solutions to the problem. And the links they gave didn’t answer the questions that the article raised.
I saw the criteria on the EcoLogo site. For me it would be more helpful if there was a list of chemicals to avoid and reasons behind them being on the list. Until then I’ll just use the Household Products Database to determine good and bad.