How To Be Eco-Friendly & Avoid Greenwashing
How To Be Eco-Friendly & Avoid Greenwashing
Between the COP26 climate conference, companies such as ExxonMobil and Starbucks implementing a reduction in single-use plastic, and companies such as Amazon showcasing their sustainability pledges to reduce their carbon footprint, what do all of these things have in common? Are more companies now jumping on the bandwagon becoming more eco-friendly? The common denominator is marketing. Sure, some companies may be well intentioned and genuinely concerned but this is a great marketing tactic at best to appeal to customers who are concerned about climate change thus keeping their business. Not everyone is going green out of the goodness of their hearts. Some companies are doing it solely for incentives they receive such as tax breaks.
What does it actually mean to be eco-friendly?
Being eco-friendly means something that is not environmentally harmful. Otherwise it is to be beneficial. The abbreviation “eco” is a derivative of the word ecology which is the study of relationships between living things and their environment. Because after all, we humans do live on the earth. Our environment affects us and there are also other species of wildlife and marine creatures that we have to take into consideration. Other creatures should not have to suffer because of human negligence. Our lifestyles and choices do not just impact us.
Being eco-friendly is a small act of awareness that each individual can take to care for the environment and reduce waste. There is a misconception that change can only happen if everyone actions change but this is not true. We cannot control what anyone else does, only our own actions. Collectively though, much can be done. It does not have to be 100% participation to produce results as small changes can still make a large impact.
Origin of plastic
Plastic is produced from leftovers of oil production, often from natural gas or crude oil. Since we use fuel in our vehicles and even for heating our homes, it is safe to say that oil is a popular commodity. Producing plastic from the leftovers makes materials cheap. Unfortunately, how to handle the waste from this material is not taken into consideration nor its effects on the environment since plastic is not naturally biodegradable.
Is recycling not enough?
The concept of recycling and the action of recycling are two different things. This goes back to the saying that actions speak louder than words. There are plastics that are recyclable but oftentimes do not get recycled or reused and are simply dumped into landfills or oceans and can take hundreds of years to decompose. I use the word decompose lightly because even then these plastics do not decompose entirely rather they are microplastics that absorb toxins and can pollute our environment. These plastics can include water bottles, straws, grocery bags, utensils, and product packaging.
There is something that goes by the name of “virgin plastic” which is a derivative of natural gas or crude oil. This plastic is typically cheaper for companies to produce than to recycle used plastic. Virgin plastic is often an addition to this recycling process in order to maintain the integrity of the material. Most recycled products often add in virgin plastic for durability.
Therefore, it is safe to say that recycling is not completely foolproof. There is practically a way to get around almost anything in the name of money and convenience.
What is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is the progress of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. It is an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers in believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly. At the end of the day, the aim of many businesses is to profit – even if they have to make their appeal in the name of climate change.
Consider the iceberg theory; you can only see the surface or what is being presented to you. The way companies operate may showcase an eco-friendly exterior but under the surface these may just be empty promises having a foundation and being driven on just the “cost of doing business”.
At what point does being eco-friendly turn dark? When companies hide behind marking tactics and sustainability pledges to appease to their consumers to satisfy and retain their business without changing much of the backend operational infrastructure that may still be a large contributor of waste.
There are 20 companies that account for more than half of all single-use plastic globally with ExxonMobil being the biggest producer contributing 5.9 million metric tons to global plastic waste. Globally there is about 8.3 billion tons of plastic. To visualize the impact, that is about the size of 1 billion elephants.
How to avoid greenwashing
To avoid greenwashing identify what greenwashing is and then take steps to not be influenced by it. There needs to be a balance. This balance can stem from acknowledgement of the problem and then actioning small steps to remediate individual impact. This can correlate to being zero waste. No one will 100% perfect being zero waste but making small changes count for something and can produce big results.
How can I be more eco-friendly?
We can all be more eco-friendly by reducing, reusing, and recycling as much as possible. Since recycling is not completely foolproof, we can reduce our consumption of single-use plastics. We can do this by opting for something that will last a while or a lifetime. This will remove the middleman and reduce our need to even recycle for single use items.
Modern problems require modern solutions
We are told to reduce our carbon footprint by recycling. Since modern problems require modern solutions riddle me this: what is the solution to the global reduction of plastic use?
The easy solution to this problem is not producing it. The not so easy aspect of this is the inconvenience of not having it since we use plastic in our daily lives to some degree. Some are not concerned with climate change, pollution, and their carbon footprint while others are. Consumers are only responsible for so much and lawmakers smacking people on the hand telling them to recycle is only a temporary fix. As long as humans continue to exist there will be human negligence. The byproduct of human negligence is human intervention. The root of the issue stems from production. If single use plastic were not available to us on such a large scale, we would have no option but to find more eco-friendly alternatives available to us. We would learn how to adapt.
There are two levels to consider – the production level and the consumer level. Both play a vital part in taking steps to make our environment hospitable for everyone. However, to truly address climate change public officials and corporations must amicably work together to acknowledge the problem as a global issue, determine an alternative, and address the harmful impacts on the production level. Because after all, if it is not produced in the first place it cannot be consumed. What we can do in the meantime is reduce our carbon footprint as much as we individually can and make eco-friendly choices when possible to serve as individual contributors to our home, planet earth.