“More than 98% of supposedly natural and environmentally friendly products on US supermarket shelves are making potentially false or misleading claims, Congress has been told. And 22% of products making green claims bear an environmental badge that has no inherent meaning, said Scot Case, of the environmental consulting firm TerraChoice.”

This, my friends, means that there’s a LOT of greenwashing going on.  Greenwashing is, of course, the situation that occurs when a company makes claims that their product is environmentally friendly when, in fact, it is not.  But to hear that up to 98% of the products on our shelves are doing this is quite frustrating.  The article even cites a refrigerator that claimed an Energy Star rating that, in reality, it didn’t earn.

If consumers can’t trust the labels on the products that we are buying, how do we know that we are buying earth-friendly products?  We don’t, without doing a lot of research, that we likely don’t have time for.

Companies need to stop greenwashing and start putting their money where their trees are planted!

This is why I called earlier and asked if I could purchase an extension on my AppleCare contract, which is due to expire at the 3-year anniversary of my purchase.  AppleCare is a service that makes repair of your Apple product very easy and cost effective, should you have any need for it.  However, upon calling, I was told, in all seriousness, that Apple doesn’t offer extensions on the AppleCare contracts because “the technology in the products evolves so quickly that Apple suggests you just buy a new computer if the old one breaks.”

What?!?

I mean, come on.  That’s about the least environmentally friendly thing I can think of, and from a company for which I have a lot of respect.  And sure, Apple’s new line of MacBook Pros might be the world’s greenest family of notebook computers, but buy a new one?  Really?  If a USB port stops working, or something really easy like that?

Fortunately Apple does have a recycling program in all of their stores, whereby you can take your “old” Apple product in and they will recycle it for you. Great idea, but where’s the incentive?  All they do is take the old computer for you.  There’s no discount that you get for taking the computer in, at least not that I know of, and not that they advertise.  If we are going to get people recycling on a mass scale, to where it’s normal practice and not the exception to the norm, then there needs to be some sort of incentive program.  Offer a hefty discount on a new product in the same line, or at the very least, offer extensions to the AppleCare program.  Because the real problem is, no matter how “green” their new line of notebook computers is, these are still NEW products…and new products generate a carbon footprint, and use new materials that may have been garnered in a very labor-intensive way.  Think of it this way:  pretend you have a car for 3 years, and something goes wrong with it, like an automatic window stops working, and your dealer tells you to go and buy a new Prius.  Sure the Prius is a very fuel efficient car, but does this even make sense?  When you know that your fix on your current car is more cost effective, and besides that, you’re buying a new vehicle which is, itself, one day going to be a part of the waste stream?

Let’s make recycling make sense. I hope that when Apple takes those computers back, they actually reuse or dispose of the materials inside properly.  But they need to pass on some of the “green goodness” to their faithful consumers, or else we’ll never get the hang of recycling like we should.

Exhibit B:  Not so much.  This is the old battery from my roommate’s 17″ MacBook Pro.  One day it just … started expanding.  Then she left it in the sun and it … kept expanding.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about Macs.  I love Macs, and I’m writing this post on my Mac right now.  But I feel there’s still a long way to go with our consumer electronics if we have to worry about parts of our computers – or even cell phones or MP3 players, or anything else – bubbling up or self-destructing in some way.  I’m not going to lie – I don’t feel comfortable handling this battery.  Yet, here it is, in my kitchen, expanding every day.  I even found a very “relevant” mug to compare the size of the expansion to:

Mind the gap!

…Its primary goal is to facilitate green living and building in communities so that it is accessible, affordable and gratifying. Green Depot has showrooms in Brooklyn, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston, Greenport, Chicago, Albany (2009) and Newark, DE (2009), a new flagship retail location in Manhattan, and 10 additional distribution centers spanning the Northeast.

What a great idea!  Let me admit that I’m jealous they thought of it first.  If you are in the Northeast or Manhattan any time soon, visit a showroom and let us know how it is.

*This is not to say that the Home Depot sells nothing but unsustainable goods.  In reality, they do have many Earth-friendly materials that they sell under the name “EcoOptions.” Unfortunately someone in their marketing department isn’t doing their job because I had to hunt for this information on their Web site.  Still, this is good news for the majority of people in the country who don’t live anywhere near Manhattan but do live within five minutes of a Home Depot.