The word eco-friendly is everywhere. It’s used as an umbrella term for a bunch of different sustainable products like biodegradable plastic or 100% natural ingredients.
It’s safe to say that the term “eco-friendly” feels like a thumbs-up to consumers that a product isn’t harmful to the environment or our natural resources.
But how many of us can say we know what actually qualifies as being “eco-friendly”?
And what do people really mean when they make this claim? Let’s have a look.
What Does Eco-Friendly Mean?
The word eco-friendly (or environmentally friendly) is used to describe something that is “not harmful to the environment”. By itself, “eco-friendly” is a qualitative term rather than quantitative: there’s no exact way to measure whether something’s eco-friendly or not.
Sounds tricky. But that’s where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) comes in. In 1992, The FTC released a document called The Green Guides. It was one of the key resources to help regulate green marketing for US companies to make sure consumers weren’t misled.
It gets updated regularly and the guide covers a range of criteria that brands have to meet to make specific claims such as “recycled packaging” or “biodegradable”. Here are a couple of examples:
Made with Recycled Content
Recycled content is material that was kept out of the trash, either during the manufacturing process or after people used it. If a product says it’s made with recycled content, check whether the claims are about the product, the package, or both.
Does the label say how much of the product or package is made with recycled content? If something isn’t made completely from recycled materials, the label should tell you what the amount is.
Made with Renewable Materials
Renewable claims often describe what the materials are, why they’re renewable, and how much of the product was made with a renewable material. For example, a manufacturer could say, “Our flooring is made from 100% bamboo, which grows at the same rate as we use it.”
Made with Renewable Energy
A company can power its manufacturing with renewable energy like wind or solar energy, or with non-renewable fossil fuels like coal or petroleum.
On the other hand, companies that use non-renewable fossil fuels for manufacturing have an eco-friendly alternative. They can buy renewable energy certificates (RECs) to “offset” the non-renewable energy they used.
Additionally, if a manufacturer says a product is “made with renewable energy,” all, or almost all, of the significant manufacturing processes should be powered by renewable energy, or the manufacturer should have RECs to match the energy used in the manufacturing process.
If that’s not true, the manufacturer should tell you how much of the process is powered that way.
Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsetting is the result of a company taking actions — like planting trees — to reduce greenhouse gases can get credits for those carbon offset activities. Some companies that earn carbon offset credits sell them to other companies that might want to reduce their “carbon footprints.”
(The FTC Eco-Friendly and Green Marketing Claims)
Where Do Businesses Actually Stand in Terms of Eco-Friendly Practices?
Businesses and marketers have to adhere to these rules under Section 5 of the FTC Act under federal law. You can’t get much more secure than that. Right?
Well, following these guidelines is enough to entitle brands to use the term “eco-friendly” but whether or not keeping to them actually helps or protects our environment’s resources is a whole other story.
For example, using recycled products is one step towards being environmentally friendly. But there are some tough truths about plastic pollution that need to be acknowledged. Only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled. Sure, using recycled plastic is great. But it’s not making more than a dent in helping the environment.
Let’s look at carbon offsets’ pros and cons. Carbon offsetting has been under fire for not only being ineffective but for also allowing large companies to continue environmentally harmful practices and then “make up” for them with a couple of good measures. As long as selling carbon offsets is possible, the practice will never constitute green living.
Even within the FTC’s rules, using renewable energy can be a way to offset non-renewable energy consumption that isn’t earth friendly, causing great harm to our environment and risking human safety. Even the production of materials for renewable and sustainable energy can damage the environment.
What consumers interpret when a company says they’re “eco-friendly” doesn’t always reflect that they’re environmentally safe.
When people pick up something with “eco-friendly” claims, they buy it because they have faith that a product is the result of better practices.
They have faith that their purchase will have a positive environmental impact whether that’s alleviating global warming to minimising pollution.
They buy what they perceived as eco-friendly products because they believe they’re protecting the planet from harm.
They use shopping bags with eco-friendly labels because they believe it’s a solution to the environmental crisis that faces us. But not every company lives up to that.
What Eco-Friendly Means for Dizolv that Sets Us Apart
We reject this kind of it’ll-do mentality at Dizolv. Our product is made from a toxin-free substrate that works like plastic but decomposes like paper, using renewable raw materials. It’s like biodegradable plastic but better. There are no microplastics and it has zero damaging effect on the environment.
Our ambition isn’t just to make a truly eco-friendly product that promotes sustainability. No, we want to shift the broken plastic industry into a better future that benefits us all, including future generations and the planet.
That’s what it takes to be eco-friendly. And not a thing less.