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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 2019)
April 24, 2019 Page 13 O PINION MCS Still in Business Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG. $50.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: 1 small Hallway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $50.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area and Hallway ‘Eco-friendly’ Products that Actually Pollute This Earth Day, beware of greenwashing M alliKa K hanna This Earth Day, I’d like to warn you about “greenwash- ing.” That’s the prac- tice of corporations branding their prod- ucts “eco-friendly,” even when they actually pollute, to deceive environmentally con- cerned customers. Even if you’ve heard noth- ing about greenwashing, you’ve probably read about the Volkswa- gen emissions scandal, “Diesel- gate.” A few years ago, the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency found that many Volkswagen cars being sold in America had been outfitted with software that enabled their diesel engines to detect when they were being test- ed. This allowed the engines to improve emissions performance under controlled laboratory con- ditions. But out on the road, the en- gines were emitting 40 times above the nitrogen oxide pollut- by ant levels allowed in the United States. The software was simply covering that up. Volkswagen apologized for the scandal and recalled its cars. But for customers who bought from the company think- ing they were having a positive impact on the environment, the damage was already done. Volk- swagen had successfully duped them — while also doing enormous environ- mental destruction. Unfortunately, Volkswagen is nowhere close to alone. Gre- enwashing has a deep history dating back to the start of the modern environmental move- ment in the 1960s. Since then, no industry has been immune to greenwashing. In 2019, you can find this un- ethical business practice flour- ishing in the fashion, electronics, fuel, food and agriculture, and plastics industries (among oth- ers). Take hugely popular fash- ion brand H&M’s Sustainable Fashion line. On the face of it, H&M’s commitment to creating a sustainable fast fashion busi- ness model is commendable. The brand has “pledged to become “100 percent climate positive” by 2040 by using renewable energy and sustainable materials. The problem is that using this language of environmental con- cern numbs H&M’s customers to the utter unsustainability of fast fashion as a concept. For all of H&M’s recycling endeavors, it’s still producing far more clothing than can be used, most of which ends up in landfills after losing its appeal within a season or two. By all metrics, fast fashion is one of the most pollut- ing industries globally. As a consequence, even if H&M were to fulfill all its prom- ises by 2040, it would still be doing more harm than good by encouraging consumers to buy and discard low quality products seasonally, contributing to a nev- er-ending cycle of waste creation. On the surface, many brands actually do implement policies that are better for the environ- ment in their attempt to bring in ecologically conscious custom- ers. But doing the bare minimum doesn’t entitle them to take ad- vantage of consumers — or to keep polluting. So, what can you do? On an individual level, always look past packaging and actually read labels, since ingredients are far more indicative of a compa- ny’s relationship to the environ- ment than their branding. Read up about a brand before buying from it to make sure it doesn’t have any environmental skele- tons in its closet. Whenever possible, try to find local alternatives to products cre- ated by multinational corpora- tions, since these tend to be the largest polluters. And remember, buying better quality, more expensive products once in a while is always better than buying and throwing out low quality products seasonally. But to truly abolish this harm- ful practice, we must acknowl- edge that it’s a structural issue. While you can help in small ways through individual action, the biggest impact you can have is by supporting policies like the Green New Deal. When our tax dollars support sustainability on a massive scale, we’ll see a much bigger impact than what we can achieve in a store aisle. Mallika Khanna is a freelance writer based in New Delhi, India who also writes about gender, immigrant experiences, and South Asia. Distributed by otherwords.org. 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