The 7 sins of greenwashing

According to http://sinsofgreenwashing.org, Terrachoice Environmental Marketing found in a study of the North American market place, 98% of companies making "green" claims regarding their products committed at least one sin of green washing. This is a disturbing thought ladies and gentlemen. For further detail into this report I suggest you take a look at this website. It's an excellent resource if you are wondering how to evaluate green labelling on products. But for those of you who are wondering what the 7 sins of green washing are right now, here are the spark notes.

1. sin of the hidden trade-off

2. sin of no proof

3. sin of vagueness

4. sin of worshipping false labels

5. sin of irrelevance

6. sin of the lesser of two evils

7. sin of fibbing

CLR good for the environment?

Calcium Lime Rust Remover (CLR) owned by Jelmar, is a powerful cleaning product for a variety of household chores. But can such a powerful product be environmentally friendly? We are all used to expecting that if a cleaner is environmentally friendly, it won't be a very powerful cleaner, yet CLR claims that we can have our cake and eat it too. This seems a little too good to be true to me, so I did a little research. According to the Jelmar website www.jelmar.com, CLR is certified by the EPA and the EPA's program "Design for Environment".

This program encourages proper labelling and safer chemistry of products. CLR was given its certification because it "contains no inorganic phosphates, hazardous solvents, or environmentally harmful sufacants (soaps). Instead, they use a proprietary blend of ingredients, which exhibit more positive environmental and human health characteristics than conventional cleaning formulations."

Unfortunately, this certification is based on information that Jelmar provided the EPA and no third party research was done. Though, Jelmar seems to be a fairly transparent company and material safety data sheets on all its products is provided by http://www.hescoinc.com/msds/jelmar.html. According to these sheets, CLR is biodegradable, but ecological information is not available. Also, it's stated that CLR is a better alternative to traditional cleaners, but does not seem to hold up to GREEN cleaners. So for the time being ladies and gentlemen, if you want to be a real hippie like me, we're going to have to put up with a little less umph in our cleaners till a better solution pops up.

A little vodka with your sponge

Well if CLR doesn't make the cut, you can always give vodka a try. According to Kristie Alley on The View, cheap vodka is cleaner that packs a punch, doesn't harm the environment, and doesn't leave an oder. Crantini anyone?