"So even if the plastic bags were to degrade within a year in an open-air environment, most Americans do not compost their plastics making the 'degradable' claim irrelevant."
Greenwashing is not a recent phenomenon. For the last 20 plus years, the practice of making an unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product, service or company has surely existed.But in the last few years, the use and abuse of green advertising has sharply escalated as companies strive to meet burgeoning consumer demand for products that will help save Mother Earth for our children's children.
Just make your weekly pilgrimage to Whole Foods and there are surely a whole slew of products that claim to be ozone-safe, eco-friendly, carbon-negative and made with renewable energy.
They all sound well and good and makes me feel extra eco-altrusitic (until I go home and slaughter a whole pig for dinner) But will they really make Mother Earth beam with pride? Or perhaps more importantly what do these terms mean and do these products meet the industry standard set by the consumer-coddling Federal Trade Commission?