Help reduce your eco footprint on our planet. We all have an impact on the Earth – an ecological footprint left behind by our activities and consumption habits.
Shopping with the planet in mind can make a big difference in many ways. Collectively, we can reward environmentally responsible practices, discourage waste, help close the recycling loop and reduce the amount of toxic materials entering our ecosystems. Shop like your life depended on it.
A study of 4,000 “eco-friendly” consumer products found on supermarket shelves found that 98 percent of them make false or misleading claims. The study, presented to Congress earlier this month by the environmental consulting firm TerraChoice, found rampant greenwashing in every product category. Twenty-two percent of the products it evaluated featured an environmental badge, or “green label,” that was actually meaningless.
Congress is now debating better ways clamp down on greenwashing. The Federal Trade Comission, which is supposed to prevent the practice, has taken almost no enforcement action against greenwashers over the past decade. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is contemplating introducing a bill that would boost federal oversight of eco-marketing, including product lablels. While one third of conumers rely on labels to decide if a product is environmentally friendly, there is a confusing jumble of 300 competing environmental certification programs that bombards them with competing and misleading claims.
There is no shortage of eco friendly products out there for you to take a look at. They can help you to create energy you use so that you aren’t contributing to the ongoing problem of wasting what we can’t replenish. Some people believe that it has to be expensive or time consuming to be able to benefit from the various eco friendly products out there. This isn’t the truth though. Taking the time to really identify what reality of the situation is will help you to see it differently.
The use of the sun to create energy is very simple. You can do it on a small scale such as using solar powered lights to line your driveway. They will turn on at night and give your yard a nice illumination. You won’t have to waste electricity to leave on porch lights either so you can safely get into the home at night.
Textiles could be one of the most un-sustainable products in the world. In their entire lifecycle from growing the raw material or creating it from oil to manufacturing and selling and final disposal they can create a serious problem.
The textile industry creates a host of pollution problems. Factories discharge dyes and chemicals into waterways, and they release heat, fly ash, formaldehyde, and sulfurous and nitrous compounds into the air, thereby contributing to acid rain. Textile packaging, drums, and toxic chemicals are dumped into landfills. Even the used fabrics themselves are a problem. Many can’t be recycled because of their mixed-fiber content.
With the exception of a few select product categories, growing consumer interest in green has not yet translated into substantive changes in purchase behavior by mainstream consumers. Like many nascent categories, green faces many barriers to widespread adoption.
In many ways, product adoption in the green space is a classic chicken and an egg problem: uncertain demand leads manufactures to limit the number of products they launch. Limited products and product choice, in turn, curtails demand. However, this only tells half the story as there are many reasons why demand is limited.
As more and more companies launch green initiatives, you can’t help but take notice of the way eco-friendly innovations are changing the way products are manufactured. Because this revolution will alter our lives in a very practical way, it’s important that we become more familiar with the earth-friendly packaging, products, and technologies available.
In order to decrease resource-sapping packaging, many manufacturers are focusing on cutting back on the quantity of materials used to wrap and store electronics. Some companies are removing outer sleeves, printing documents on recycled paper, and eliminating extras such as unnecessary bags. Some are even reducing the size of the product box or changing materials to recycled content.