It’s not even April yet and green versions of nearly every magazine are pouring onto newsstands – and I’m snapping them up whenever I spot them. 125 ways to Go Green! Eco Living In Style! You get the point. Even Sports Illustrated is talking climate change (and not just because it gets girls to wear bikinis more often).
Yes, it’s all very encouraging when it comes to bringing environmental consciousness to the mainstream, but some of the flagrant misinformation and greenwash on shelves is enough to make a person swear off the word “green” forever.
Case in point: Toronto-based Wish magazine’s green issue has a girl wearing a green top on the cover. Very cute. But is it organic? Nope. Bamboo maybe? Sorry. Nothing enviro about it. In fact, the inside page it’s featured on offers a vibrant splash of limes and olive-hued items, half of which aren’t even particularly eco-friendly!
Then Glamour issued its list of the “10 easiest things you can do to help the planet” in its April issue. Some of it’s fairly promising, like the sidebar on eco-scams. But I was dumbfounded when in a little blurb addressing whether all plasitcs are equally bad for the environment, Glamour only said:
“Thin kinds, such as baggies and cling wrap, are made with fewer materials than heavier ones like bottles and containers, so they’re production involves less energy and spews fewer Bad Things into the air.”
You jest right? (oh Glamour girls, you so funny!) because a lot of cling wrap is made with PVC, which environmentalists agree is the most ecologically destructive plastic on the planet. Plus it’s not recyclable in the vast majority of municipalities.
A good answer would have included, oh, say, a link to Greenpeace’s pyramid of plastics with some info on how not only is PVC bad, but polycarbonate (ie clear water bottles labelled #7) is dodgy because of its link to hormone disrupting bisphenol A. Styrofoam is another big eco no-no of note. At the very least, they could have suggested people prioritize buying plastics that are recycled in their town. Alas, nada.
I’m the first to agree that separating the truly green from the greenwash gets pretty tricky sometimes, but come on, kids, it’s the media’s responsible to do its research.
