I stumbled across an article last week about the coming of stricter guidelines for the environmental claims on products. As of January, the U.S. Government requires a third-party testing/inspection on efficiency of the new products versus regular products. This is true to all products that bear the Energy Star logo. Apparently before it was only required for some of the products.
According to the article: consumers and retailers are getting frustrated with the products that claim to be eco-friendly but there isn't any proof to substantiate these claims.
Currently a common problem is companies labeling rayon as bamboo on products. Rayon (according to www.thefreedictionary.com) is any of several synthetic textile fibers produced by forcing a cellulose solution through fine spinnerets and solidifying the resulting filaments. Not a very green product, hopefully this issue will be addressed.
Hopefully these guidelines/regulations will make shopping green easier and will remove a lot of grunt work for those who want to live greener.
Note on the energy star appliances: My parents jumped on this when they started appearing in the mid-nineties. But they've noticed something. None of their "energy star" appliances have lasted more than ten years. Where they grew up with refrigerators and washing machines that were twenty or even thirty years old before breaking down, their energy star washing machine crapped out after six years and the fridge around nine. What good are these energy star appliances if they're sitting in landfills?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the rant. Also I just use personal experience for reference here; I don't actually know what I'm talking about.