A tale of two bottles.

This week I will look at two different bottles that have two different levels of green-ness.  Although the bottles and associated product have two very different uses, I believe that the claims can be judged equally.  The first product, which is an example of greenwashing, is Poland Spring water bottles.  It boasts an "eco-shape bottle."  What the heck is an eco-shape??  They go on to say that an "eco-shape bottle" is one that uses 30% less plastic than comparable sized bottles.  This is a vague claim.  Same as that they claim that they have reduced their label sizes to save paper.  Compared to what exactly?  Yes, they have saved paper and plastic, but those kinds of comparisons are fairly arbitrary.  I did check out the study that was referenced at the bottom, and none of the referenced points are listed.  This is not good.  Also, water bottles use a TON of resources to be shipped to your store, as well as the processing to clean the water.  Water is heavy and takes up a lot of space on trucks.  I know from working at Wal-Mart, that we sell many palettes worth of water every day per store.  This is the worst offense of all.  We all have public water supplies at our houses.  We all have reusable cups.  Heck, we can all get a Brita filter.

Next up is the Seventh Generation laundry detergent, which is a good example of a green product.  First off, it is highly concentrated, so that means that it will do many more loads compared to non-concentrated detergent.  Secondly, and most importantly, the bottle and detergent are biodegradable!  This is great, because you don't have to worry about recycling, which is very energy intensive.  The cap and inside liner are not biodegradable, but are however, recyclable.  Thirdly, the brand carries the Leaping Bunny logo which means that they do not test on animals.

Standardization of environmental claims, in the case of these two bottles, would probably be a good thing, although not a perfect solution.  There are many things that the two products can be compared.  The bottle itself, the cap, and the label.  Those could all have a particular environmental standard associated with it.  The product inside, would not be a good case for standardization.  The products are completely different.  Looking at how much energy is consumed to make the product might be a good one.  So I could see how standardization could dilute the market, encouraging producers to again reach, but not exceed, a minimum standard.