by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
When you decide to go green and want to buy environmentally friendly products, there are some common mistakes that you must avoid at all costs. The bad thing about going green is that it is getting so popular that everyone is jumping onto the band wagon, so to speak, and that you always have those items that can fool you into thinking that they are environmentally friendly and eco products, when in fact they are not.
Knowing how to know the difference and to distinguish between truth and greenwash is essential to making sure your going green isn't going sour.
The first mistake that is made when people decide to buy environmentally friendly products is that they are fooled by what appear to be "green". There are many manufacturers out there that are promoting their products as being "green" and good for the environment and all that when, in fact, they are not.
Those products may appear “green” because it looks as if their label indicates that they are they are eco products and products that are good for the Planet. And there are those products that fool us with their advertisements into believing that they are “green” when all the manufacturers or vendors are interested in is our money, with no intention whatsoever of being environmentally friendly.
Cleaning products are probably a prime example of going to buy what you think are environmentally friendly products, only to end up with the same chemical pollutants, only packaged differently. When you see a cleaning product that claims that it is a environmentally friendly products, make sure you take a good look at the list of ingredients. That is if the product lists the ingredients for in some countries it is not required. If there is a list and if the ingredients listed are not all natural ingredients then the product is not "green". Many older and more traditional cleaning products can provide the true "green" experience you are really looking for. You are going to find that they are still effective, but the chemical harshness and pollution is eliminated. A little bit more elbow grease, however, may be required. Vinegar is a fantastic product for cleaning and disinfecting, amongst others.
If you want real green cleaning products the best advice is to make them yourself. There are many old books around with recipes for effective cleaners of our grandparents' time and those before that even which you can easily make at home from common ingredients. One of those ingredients will be vinegar and the other lemon juice, for instance.
There is far too much greenwash out there and not just as far as cleaning products are concerned.
My old pet peeve is, and let me mention it once again, the “Eco Button”, for instance, used to put your computer into sleep mode. The thing costs around the $12-$14 mark (cost recalculated from British Pounds) and does no more that what the sleep mode button – or button combination – that is standard at your computer. But it has been highly touted by the green media in their reviews. No one, bar the GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW seems to have dared to mention that it is, in reality, a total waste of money and a piece of plastic and electronics that has to be disposed off via the electronics recycling schemes and cannot just be tossed into the trash. Great – NOT!
Then there is the notion of people that they do great when they buy a recycled product and, to all intents and purposes they do, but going out and spending between the equivalent of six to ten bucks to buy a recycled steel pencil bin for the desk when they have just tossed a tin can into the recycling bin does not make sense. Neither does spending the equivalent of sixteen dollars on a set of two recycled glass storage jars when one has just tossed some large glass jars into the recycling bin that could have served the same purpose and, in both cases, for free.
Green consumption is taking over from general consumption now and the thought seems to be that we have to buy this or that green product or gadget. Too often not a thought is given as to whether or not it might not be possible to make your own; in many cases it is.
Always consider as to whether you could make what you want and need yourself and what you could repurpose and upcycle rather than going out to buy or ordering on the Internet.
Energy saving gadget, obviously, you cannot, really make yourself in most cases but you could do it manually, couldn't you. All it needs – at least in Britain – is to turn off the plugs at the socket. You don't even have to pull the plug out. And you certainly do not have to have a device or gadget that turns your lights off in a room now which you don't use at the time, on the landings, and such like. It is easy: turn it off by hand and this can be taught to even children.
When it comes to, and I said that before, to environmentally friendly cleaning products you can make most of those yourself, from common ingredients, and a fraction of the cost.
Read the ingredients on some window cleaners in spray bottles; it is water, soap, vinegar and alcohol. OK, so, recap... water, soap (Fairy dishwash will do), vinegar (even the cheapest brown stuff is fine) and alcohol (a drop of cheap vodka) and bingo.
And this is just one of the many things that can be done. No need to go out and pay good money for something that is being advertised as green and then only to find that it has harmful chemicals in it that is polluting your home.
Just some food for thought here...
© 2011
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