Part - 1
We have heard of counterfeits. Normally Counterfeits are products that resemble branded goods in apparel, electronics, FMCG products that are packed like original goods but have spurious products inside. Its high time that we realize that such counterfeits have entered the eco-friendly products too. This phenomenon of selling products that look like eco-friendly but in reality not is called GREENWASHING.
Consumer Behaviour shift
Bygone are the days that the consumer will buy what is available. With percolation of internet and use of smart phones together with social media, consumer's now see beyond the product - into their effect on the planet. Once Climate change was a knowledge but now it has become a news. From floods to boiling summers, people when they feel the pin of nature, see that they want to do their small part to conserve the planet. But of-course a common man/women is limited by time, money and reach to make big impacts. But the same common man/women tries their bit when they spend in a super market or a clothing store. This has caused a phenomenal shift in consumer behaviour in everyday goods. Be it a hand towel or a kitchen scrub pad or a tissue paper, consumers are willing to try the eco friendly options available to them.
With the urge from consumers, retailers scramble for new eco-friendly products. This rush is utilized by many opportunists to convert planet-harming products by changing the color or appearance or simply the outer labels to resemble eco-friendly goods. It is needless to mention the pricing markup for such greenwashed products.
Lack of standards in this segment and unavailability of international codes for regulation had made such false green reach the global retailers faster.
Greenwashing - Disrupts Eco Friendly spirit
A kitchen scrub pad named natural was available in skin color and had few hemp fibres on top surface. The label read to be "Natural hemp scrub pad - biodegradable & plastic free". The product was priced very competetively and packed in kraft boxes with symbols of biodegradable, plastic free, recyclable and many such fancy logos. But when analysed the skin colored scrub pad is simply a change in color of the conventional plastic green scourer with a few hemp fibres sprinkled on top.
Few of major problems with such products are
1) They are disposed in green trash bins ending to land fills and not recycling centres
2) They go unnoticed across into soil/seas and risk of catastrophic animal consumptions
3) They challenge the true eco-products in price kill the originals
4) They take wrong advantage of consumer market shift and fool the end consumer with premium price
This causes unrepairable damage to the Eco-Friendly spirit and might cause negative change in consumer mentality too. It also hinders original and truly eco-products to reach the consumer .
To be continued...
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