I was listening to the radio a few days ago and heard the term “greenwashing” for the first time. As context of the radio story indicated, greenwashing is “the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources.” (Wikipedia)
According to Wikipedia, I’m hopelessly behind the times since the term was coined by “NY environmentalist Jay Westerveld in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry’s practice of placing green placards in each room, promoting reuse of guest-towels, ostensibly to ‘save the environment.’ Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward waste recycling was being implemented by these institutions, due in part to the lack of cost-cutting affected by such practice. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this ‘green campaign’ on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, increased profit. Westerveld hence monitored this and other outwardly environmentally conscientious acts with a greater, underlying purpose of profit increase as greenwashing.”
Well, last week, only days after my awareness of greenwashing was heightened, I experienced the practice firsthand. At Christmas, my sister gave me a Pampered Chef gift certificate, which I used to order a handy-dandy food chopper. The food chopper is about ten inches tall, with a diameter of perhaps four inches and weighs less than a pound. So imagine my surprise when a Pampered Chef box, measuring18 x 24 x 8 inches, arrived. Imagine my further surprise when I opened the box to find it filled with crinkly packing paper and another food chopper-sized box containing, you guessed it, the food chopper.
The company tried to neutralize their wastefulness by stamping the “Recycle” symbol on the box flap. They even included an exclamation mark at the end of the word for emphasis and a pretty leaf design on the R to show their sincerity.
But their wily ways didn’t fool me. I recognize greenwashing when I see it. And though I like Pampered Chef products, I’ll hesitate before buying from the company again. Even though I’ve got a hankering for their ice cream scoop before summer, satisfying my yen can’t justify such blatant waste.
So please, Pampered Chef packaging gurus, quit greenwashing consumers. Prove that you’re in it for the trees, not just the bucks. Recycle for real or you’re going to lose customers. We’re smarter than you think!
