Weekly Blog Postings #5

Sometimes it is hard to believe that a lot of products are being greenwashed. Some of the times you can see that something doesn’t seem right when a highly dangerous product’s company says that they are lowering their toxin levels or making their products safer. Sometimes you had no idea that a product was a lot dangerous than the way it is being made out to be. Here are a few companies that have really greenwashed their products. You may be surprised or some of these may not surprising at all.




Examples of Greenwashing:

• Mobil Chemical added starch to their 'Hefty' trash bags which were labeled as biodegradable. They were sued for the biodegradability claims and removed the term from their packaging and advertising.

• BAE Systems promoting weapons as “environmentally friendly”.

• Shell advertising that insinuated oil refineries emit “fresh flowers” instead of pollutants.

• Exxon Mobil indicating they were reducing greenhouse gas emissions while they were actually increasing.

• Kraft's Post Selects Cereals, promoting its cereals as having "natural ingredients" when, the corn used in the cereal is genetically engineered.

• Tyson Chicken promoting its products as "all natural," even though the company uses antibiotics with its chickens.

• Comanche Trace, a commercial developer, bills its golf courses as "great habitats," even though golf courses use pesticides that poison surrounding groundwater.

• Clairol claims to have a "truly organic experience" with its Herbal Essences line of shampoos but, chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulfate, propylene glycol and D&C red no. 33, which are not organic are used in the ingredients.



Were you surprised to read that some of these companies’ products are being greenwashed? Why or why not? Which one were you most surprised about? Least surprised about?