My family want to live a sustainable life – but how can we trust firms are eco-friendly?
Which? research has raised the alarm about problematic environmental claims being made on a huge scale, which can result in consumers buying products that are not as sustainable as they thought. Our researchers trawled through more than 20,000 online product listings using AI software trained to find green claims.
We then delved deeper into 1,000 online product descriptions in a range of categories, including food, cleaning, electronics, clothing and personal care items, sold at popular UK retailers such as Argos, Next, Ocado and Tesco...
A Chad Valley Wooden Puzzles set (from Argos) carried the claim that because it was made of wood it was “more kind to the environment”. But without being clear what specific environmental aspects are being compared – its carbon footprint or the resources it uses, for example – or what it is kinder than (e.g. plastic toys), this could also be misleading.
Oh dear, there is eco-danger here, the danger of having to define terms instead of allowing them to float around the ecosphere where unauthorised users can take unauthorised advantage of their unsustainable silliness.
It leads a chap to wonder if there is more to be gained from curing silliness than sickness, but of course this isn't the underlying problem. It's about government controlling everything, including Chad Valley Wooden Puzzles.
They don't really like puzzles.
2 comments:
I'm sure it can easily be solved by more regulation.
Woodsy - that seems to be the message, create another regulator, Ecostuff perhaps.
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