344 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
344 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
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presents
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Green Consuming in Perspective
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by Gross Genitalia
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Toxic File #70
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Centre of Eternity 615.552.5747 40 Megs Lots of Files HQ of Toxic Shock
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The only recent environmental awareness has brought into realization the dire
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need to clean this toxic waste dump of a planet up. Only recently are we doing
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the things that each and every family and human being SHOULD have been doing
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from birth. We should have all been recycling. In the early 80's, some people
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considered people that recycled and were otherwise concerned with their planet
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were considered "hippies" and were thought to sit around, try to live in peace,
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and smoke mary jane incessantly. Only recently have the bullshit myths been
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broken and the environment made a BIG concern.
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The following article is from a recent issue of "Greenpeace", the bimonthly
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magazine from the environmental organization of the same name. The article is
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described in the table of contents:
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"Now that being ecologically correct is the rage, corporations have discovered
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that money does grow on trees. But doing the right thing is more complicated
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than the advertisements suggest. A guide for the perplexed."
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A BILL OF GOODS?
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GREEN CONSUMING IN PERSPECTIVE
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by Debra Lynn Dadd and Andre Carothers
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"Greenpeace" Vol. 15 Number 3 May/June 1990
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The ad opens with a tableau of children laughing and skipping as they carry
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green garbage bags across a verdant meadow strewn with litter. As they stuff
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the trash in bags, a voice-over speaks of the virtues of a clean environment
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and biodegradable garbage bags. With the field nearly cleaned, a spectral
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Native American in ceremonial regalia appears, intoning to one awed youngster,
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"Take what you need, but always leave the land as you found it."
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In another commercial, a butterfly flits across the screen, and a pleasant
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voice patiently details the magnanimity of Chevron, the multinational oil
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giant, which has set aside land near one of its refineries to ensure that the
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rapidly dwindling El Segundo Blue butterfly does not fade into extinction. Who
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performs such acts of selfless altruism, the viewer is asked? "People Do,"
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responds the oil company.
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This is the new environmental advertising, the big-business response to the
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ecological mood of the public. We'll be seeing a lot more of it in the '90s.
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The environment, for better or worse (mostly better), is now an "issue". The
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Michael Peters Group, a design and new products consulting firm, found in a
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1989 market research poll that 89 percent of Americans and concerned about the
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impact in the environment of the products they purchase, more than half say
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they decline to buy certain products out of concern for the environment, and
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78 percent would pay more for a product packaged with recyclable or biodegrad-
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able materials.
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Environmental concern "is a bigger market than some of the hottest markets
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of the '80s," says the journal AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS. "This is not a small
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market niche of people who believe in 'the Greening of America'," says Ray
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Goldberg of the Harvard Business School. "It is becoming a major segment of the
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consuming public." Little wonder, then, that Madison Avenue has turned caring
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for the environment into a marketing strategy. "The selling of the environ-
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ment," says Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, "may make the
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cholesterol craze look like a Sunday school picnic."
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In the case of these two TV ads, the sell is all hype. The first, for Glad
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"biodegradable" garbage bags, fails to mention that truly biodegradable plastic
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is as rare as the El Segundo Blue. Even if it were available, the pollution
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released in plastic production puts the Glad Bag's ecological balance sheet
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squarely in the red. And Chevron is first and foremost an oil company, an
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industry that is directly and indirectly responsible for much of the pollution
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on earth. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that Chevron has probably
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spent five times as much to boast in magazines and on television of its skimpy
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list of environmental initiatives than the actions actually cost. (And many of
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them were required under the provisions of their permits anyway.)
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Navigating the misleading claims of opportunistic advertisers is just one of
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the difficulties facing the sonsumer intent on "ecologically correct" shopping.
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So complicated is the terrain, in fact, that what is becoming known as "green
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consuming" may prove to be nothing more than a costly diversion from the
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campaign to save the earth.
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The rush to fill the stores of Europe and North America with consumer goods
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is just one of several leading causes of environmental destruction. The
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influence of big business has foiled the effort to rein in the consumer
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culture's worst side effects. One method is to inform consumers of the
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implications of their purchases, a tradition that inspires consumer rights
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groups all over the world. Informative labeling is now the method of choice for
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environmentalists and manufacturers.
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The first labeling scheme keyed for ecological concerns was West Germany's
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Blue Angel program, begun in 1978. The Blue Angel symbol graces over 2,000
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products, calling consumer's attention to benefits such as recycled paper and
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the absence of toxic solvents. Similar schemes are being proposed in nearly
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every country in Western Europe and now in the United States. They come in
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three versions: independent, non-governmental efforts, like the United States'
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new Green Seal program (managed by the Alliance for Social Responsibility in
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New York); quasi-governmental schemes like those being developed in the United
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Kingdom and Canada; and identification programs from the manufacturers them-
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selves, like Wal-Mart's new line of "green" products.
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Industry's fear of the consumer has produced some notable successes. Before
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Friends of the Earth in the United Kingdom had launched a planned boycott of
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CFC-containing aerosols, the industry pledged to phase them out. The Blue Angel
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program can lay claim to preventing 40,000 tons of solvents from entering the
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waste stream through glossy paints. The concern over agrochemicals in food has
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given a much-needed boost to the organic food industry, and the boycott of
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tuna, in conjunction with a federal labeling requirement that may pass the
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U.S. Congress this year, will play a large role in saving dolphins from the
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fishing fleet's nets.
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But green consuming has its limits. First, seals of approval may be awarded
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indiscriminately and for the wrong reasons. The Blue Angel, for example, is
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bestowed on one brand of gasoline-powered lawnmower because it is quieter than
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a rival. The push variety, soundless and emission-free, gets no reward.
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Loblaw's, a Canadian chain of grocery stores, has among its self-proclaimed
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"green" products a brand of acid-free coffee, so labeled because it does not
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cause stomach upsets. "Green" batteries are being marketed in the United
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Kingdom and Canada that contain mercury - considerably less than other brands,
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but enough to put the lie to claims of environmental friendliness.
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Some claims are absurd. "Biodegradable" diapers are filling the developed
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world's landfills, with no sign that they will ever disappear. West German
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manufacturer AEG launched a $2 million ad campaign in England claiming that
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their dishwashers saved newts. The logic runs like this: since the AEG
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appliances are slightly more energy efficient, they use less electricity and
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are therefore responsible for less acid-rain-causing power plant emissions
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(which, we assume, kill newts). Arco has launched a "clean" gasoline in
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California with the slogan "Let's drive away smog." Both Volkswagen and Audi
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have touted their cars' low emissions, including "harmless carbon dioxide." If
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they had done a little homework they would have discovered that carbon dioxide
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is a leading greenhouse gas.
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The environmental advertising bandwagon offers companies an opportunity to
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spruce up their images at relatively low cost. Many of the recycled paper
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products now flooding the market are made by companies with otherwise repre-
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hensible environmental records. In the United Kingdom, according to the
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company's slogan, "Green means Heinz," but in the Pacific, thanks to tuna
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fishing, it means dead dolphins. And the term "biodegradable" has been attached
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to so many different brands of polluting petroleum-based plastics that it has
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become virtually meaningless, as well as highly misleading. [See sidebars
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elsewhere in the file.]
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These companies rely on government regulations for some of their claims,
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leading to situations like McDonald's declaration that their styrofoam burger
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trays are CFC-free, when in fact they contain CFC-22, a less potent member of
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the same chemical family. The lie is based on a glaring example of regulatory
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sleight of hand: according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CFC-22
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is "technically not a CFC," although for the ozone layer the distinction is far
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less clear. Under federal law, paper manufacturers can call paper "recycled"
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when it includes 40 precent recycled content, and that portion consists mostly
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of paper left over from production processes, not paper that has already been
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through a consumer's hands and recycled. In Canada, where the Canadian
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Standards Association creates guidelines for green products, business does its
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best to ensure that standards are not too stringent. "We make the draft of a
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guideline," says one insider, "and the industry fights to lower the standard."
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All this should raise doubts about industry's claims that they have seen the
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light, and that hiding behind the advertising pitch is a real concern for the
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environment that transcends the bottom line. In fact, the record shows that big
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business is not inclined toward public service. According to a study by Amitai
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Etzioni of the Harvard Business School, two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies
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have been charged with serious crimes, from price-fixing to illegal dumping of
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hazardous wastes. And these are only the ones that have been caught.
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But even if we could count on the good faith of all concerned, the role of
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green consuming in the fight to save the planet is destined to remain small and
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marginal. Consumption's role in destroying the environment is a complex and
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poorly understood phenomenon. A truly green economy, for example, would require
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that all products be audited for their effects. Such an audit would analyze the
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product from "cradle to grave," and include the amount of energy used to
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produce and transport the item, the pollution generated in its manufacture, the
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role of the commodity in the economic and social health of the country of
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origin, the investment plans of the company in question and all its sub-
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sidiaries, and the final disposal of the product.
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The questions raised by this approach are endless. Does the use of
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rainforest nuts justify the energy expended transporting them here? Are the
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labor practices in processing these nuts fair? We all thought the right thing
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to do was to use paper bags, but if energy use is factored in, some studies
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show that plastic grocery bags are more environmentally benign (bringing a
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bag from home doesn't make money for anyone, so you won't see that solution
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advertised). Should we buy recycled paper from a company known to pollute
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rivers with pulp mill effluent? Should magazines be printed on chlorine-
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bleached paper contaminated with dioxin, even if it is recycled and recyclable?
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Or should they use dioxin-free paper from Europe, even though it is at the
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moment rarely recycled, and fossil fuels are used to transport it?
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Moreover, much of the pollution generated by business is out of reach of the
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average consumer. For example, as Barry Commoner points out, one of the reasons
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we have air pollution is that much of the work done by railways has been taken
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over by trucks, which generate four times as much pollution for each ton
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hauled. How would the average store owner respond if we demanded only goods
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that had been delivered by train? And when the beer industry consolidated and
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discovered that it was cheaper to sell beer in throwaway bottles than in
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returnables, what possible role could the consumer have played? Between 1959
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and 1970, the number of beer bottles produced increased five-fold, while
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consumption only went up by one-third. Detroit pushes big cars with high-
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compression, high-pollution engines on the American public not because "that's
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what we demand," but because that's where the biggest profits are. These
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decisions aren't illegal, they are simply part of "doing business" in the usual
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way - a way that puts environmental considerations last.
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Finally, individual action, when limited to the supermarket aisles, does
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little to forward the fundamental changes required to save the earth. Not only
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is this collection of individual actions completely outdistanced by the pace of
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destruction thoughout the world, but as Friends of the Earth in in the United
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Kingdom points out, green consuming "leaves totally unanswered the basic
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questions about global equality and the chronic poverty and suffering of the
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millions of people in the Third World. ...There is a real danger that green
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consumerism will divert attention from the real need to change institutional
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structures." Green consuming labeling schemes, they conclude, "must complement,
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not become a substitute for firm goverment action."
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Green consuming is still consuming, which is the fundamental paradox. The
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answer to the problem we face is not only to consume appropriately; it is
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primarily to consume less. Green labeling schemes are similar in philosophy
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to the end-of-pipeline pollution control strategies that have failed to stem
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pollution. They put a dent in the pollution problem, but they do not solve it.
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The key to protecting the planet is to prevent a problem at the source, rather
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than tinkering with it after it is already created. In the consumer society,
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this means intervening early in the game in the decisions about what is
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produced and how it is produced. A society in which consumption is conscious
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and restrained requires that new and different decisions be made in corporate
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boardrooms as well as in national capitals, decisions that put the needs of the
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planet ahead of the profits of the corporation. []
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(Debra Lynn Dadd is editor of "The Earthwise Consumer" and author of the
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forthcoming book, "Nontoxic and Natural and Earthwise" [Tarcher]. Andre
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Carothers is editor of "Greenpeace" magazine.)
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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SIDEBARS FROM THE ARTICLE
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HOW TO BUY RIGHT:
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First, ask yourself if you really need this product, regardless of whether or
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not it calls itself "environmentally friendly". This should eliminate bleach,
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fabric softener, drain cleaner, air freshener, everything in aerosol cans,
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disposable cameras, electric can openers and hundreds of other cleaners,
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appliances, and plastic trinkets that some ad copywriter is convinced you
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couldn't do without.
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Buy the product with the least packaging, and write letters to companies
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that insist on wrapping everything in layers of plastic and paper.
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Inform yourself, using the dozens of resources available in this magazine
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and elsewhere, about boycott targets, non-toxic alternatives, how to make it
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at home or do without it.
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Elect people to office who will do the right thing - people who are willing
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to address problems created by the packaging industry, the oil companies,
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the chemical manufacturers and the investment community.
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A FIELD GUIDE TO THE ENVIRONMENTALLY BENIGN PRODUCT
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---------------------------------------------------
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(An extremely rare beast. If sighted, purchase immediately.)
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It is not obnoxiously frivolous, like the new electric pepper mill.
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It releases no persistent toxins into the environment during production,
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use, or disposal.
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It is made from recycled material or renewable resources extracted in a
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way that does not damage the environment.
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It is durable and reusable first, or recyclable or truly biodgradable next.
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It is responsibly and minimally packaged.
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It includes information on manufacturing, such as location, labor practices,
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animal testing, and the manufacturer's other business.
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/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\
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GREENPEACE REPORT: THE DEGRADABLE PLASTICS SCAM
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"[Degradable bags] are not the answer to landfill crowding or littering...
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degradability is just a marketing tool...We're talking out of both sides of
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our mouths when we want to sell bags. I don't think the average customer
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knows what degradability means. Customers don't care if it solves the solid-
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waste problem. It makes them feel good." -Spokesperson for Mobil Chemical
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Company, manufacturer of Hefty degradable trash bags.
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You are being duped. Most of the products hailed as biodegradable in the
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marketplace today are little better than their "non-biodegradable" counter-
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parts. Biodegradability means one thing: the material is capable of being
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broken down by natural processes into pieces small enough to be consumed by
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microorganisms in the soil. Plastics, as petrochemical products, are not the
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outcome of biological evolution, so living things lack the enzymes that can
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break them down to a molecular level where they can be taken and reincorpor-
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ated into living things.
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So what do these materials do? According to a study commissioned by
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Greenpeace and conducted by the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems,
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"biodegradable" plastics can be divided into two categories: those to which
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starch molecules have been added; and those that have been altered so that
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they are sensitive to light and can at some point break into small pieces.
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No one has proven that either method breaks down the plastic to the point
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where it can be metabolized by microorganisms. But this has not discouraged
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manufacturers from making false claims about their "environmental friendli-
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ness."
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The Greenpeace report, "Breaking Down the Degradable Plastics Scam",
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analyzed the claims of additive suppliers and plastics manufacturers such
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as Du Pont, Ecoplastics and Archer Daniels Midland. It determined that none
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of these major manufacturers could support their claims that their products
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were "biodegradable". The only true biodegradable plastics are those made
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from natural polymers such as ICI's PHBV, which is produced by bacteria, and
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cellophane, which is made of cellulose produced by plants. These products
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are not in general commercial use because they are currently too expensive
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or have been replaced by mass-produced plastics. Cellophane has the additional
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drawback of releasing toxins during manufacture.
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Two other concerns stem from these claims of biodegradability. First of all,
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more than 1,000 additives and colorants, such as cadmium, are used to modify
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plastics, and these may prove toxic in the environment. The tests for toxicity
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performed by these companies are inadequate to support their claims of safety,
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according to the Greenpeace report. And secondly, the role of "biodegrad-
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ability" in solving the garbage crisis is highly questionable. Reducing
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and eliminating packaging entirely, rather than tinkering with the contents
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of the waste stream, is the best solution to the problem.
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/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\
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This file will begin degrading within 15 days of exposure to ultraviolet
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light...and will continue the process until it turns into a non-toxic
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environmentally safe dust in 60 to 90 days.
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Yeah right, a load of bullshit.
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/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\
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If you buy a product that is labeled in a manner as to claim it environmentally
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"safe", I suggest you get an address off the package and write the company
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that manufactured the product to see if it is truly benign to the environment
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or if you've stumbled onto another industrial giant masking its planetary
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destruction with the green consuming scams and lies.
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Leave toxicity to the Followers of Fetus, not to the environment.
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- Gross Genitalia.
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(C)opied right from Greenpeace Bimonthly.
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My comments are my own and protected by a big fetus named Ralph.
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Green Consuming In Perspective, Green Consuming Unmasked.
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July 5, 1990. Toxic File #70.
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