Consumerist

The Six Sins of "Greenwashing," how companies try to fool customers into thinking they're more environmentally responsible than they really are. [TerraChoice]

3:07 PM on Fri Dec 7 2007, by Ben Popken, 639 views, 6 comments

The Latest Form Of Greenwashing: Going "Local"

Alternet reports on the latest fad in marketing: touting one's national or even multinational corporation as local. HSBC calls itself "the world's local bank." Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, is advertising "Local flavor since 1956."...

11:17 AM on Wed Sep 9 2009, by Carrie McLaren, 5,267 views, 52 comments

Sam's Club Pretends Its Polystyrene Cup Is Green

Gregg saw this cheerful environmentally-friendly message on the side of his Sam's Club soda cup. Wait, what? We guess it saves Sam's Club fuel costs to ship the cups, but that sounds more like a profit-friendly quality. Gregg notes another benefit...

1:04 PM on Fri Aug 15 2008, by Chris Walters, 72,807 views, 89 comments

Clorox Buys Burt's Bees

Clorox is sick of being unnatural so it's going to pay $925 million in cash for natural skin care products manufacturer Burt's Bees.

6:50 PM on Wed Oct 31 2007, by Meg Marco, 4,265 views, 40 comments

How Can I Tell When A Product Is Being Greenwashed?

Sure, some people want to buy environmentally friendly products, and that's great. The problem is that marketers understand these impulses well, and want to take advantage of them without always offering products that live up to the claims. What...

7:00 AM on Thu Aug 27 2009, by Laura Northrup, 5,798 views, 60 comments

Nearly all "Eco" Product Claims Are Misleading

Mother Jones reports that a study of "4,000 'eco-friendly' consumer products... found that 98 percent make false or misleading claims." Hardly a surprise, huh?

10:07 AM on Wed Jun 24 2009, by McLaren and Torchinsky, 7,122 views, 41 comments

Yellow Book Saves The Earth By Distributing Thousands Of Phone Books With Smaller Print

I don't use phone books, but I get three different ones delivered to my house every year anyway. Hardly anyone I communicate with even has a landline, let alone a white pages listing, but that doesn't matter. They still deliver them. Straight into...

6:04 PM on Thu Jun 25 2009, by Laura Northrup, 5,381 views, 78 comments

Airline Urges Passengers To Leave Their Urine Behind

In a new and exciting airline cutback effort, an airline is now asking passengers to relieve themselves before getting on the plane in order to decrease passenger weight and save fuel. No, we're not making this up. And no, it's not Ryanair.

4:55 PM on Wed Oct 7 2009, by Laura Northrup, 9,989 views, 76 comments

T-Mobile To Charge $1.50 For Paper Phone Bills

If you're a T-Mobile USA customer who likes to kick it old-school with a paper bill, checks, stamps and whatnot, bad news. Starting September 12, you'll be charged $1.50 per account for the privilege of receiving your bill by mail.

7:15 AM on Wed Aug 12 2009, by Laura Northrup, 6,365 views, 105 comments

Coinstar Calls Cashing In Change 'Recycling'

Douglas writes, "Coinstar wants you to 'recycle' your coins in their machines, and save the environment! Minus their 8.9% fee of course." They even have a little wizard on their website that estimates how many parts of the environment—water,...

12:11 PM on Mon Aug 18 2008, by Chris Walters, 6,180 views, 85 comments