Anytime a manufacturer “invents” their own green label, watch out; usually the purpose of the label isn’t to help the public make better decisions about green products, or help you be better informed. I’ve written before, here on The GreenChameleon about Greenwashing – the trend in the market to make consumers think and believe that a product is great for the environment, when in fact it’s not (Buyer Be Aware, Buyers Guide to Green Labeling and Eco-Awareness – Are we Being Greenwashed?)

Sherwin Williams paints recently announced their new “GreenSure” label. According to the Sherwin Williams website:

“To help you easily identify our green coatings we have introduced the GreenSure™ designation for our environmentally friendly products. Our Greensure products offer maximum performance, long-term durability and the highest indoor air quality ratings.”

And here are the standards that Sherwin Williams GreenSure paints are designed to meet:

VOC Limits

VOC must be less than 50 g/l.

Aromatic Content

The product must contain no more than 1.0% by weight the sum total of aromatic compounds.

Chemical Component Restrictions

The following chemical compounds are not used as ingredients in the manufacture of the product:

Methylene chloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, Benzene, toluene (methylbenzene), Ethylbenzene, vinyl chloride, naphthalene, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, butyl benzyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate, di-o-octyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, dimethyl phthalate, isphorone, antimony, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, Lead, mercury, formaldehyde, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, acrolein, Acrylonitrile

Washability (Stain Removal)

The product shall demonstrate the following minimum requirements for stain removal as determined by ASTM 4828-91 Mechanical Method, Standard Test Method for Practical Washability of Organic Coatings.

• Flat 2.5 minimum rating
  
• Non-Flat 7 minimum rating
  

Hiding Power (Opacity)

The product shall demonstrate a minimum 0.95 contrast ration at 400 square feet per gallon as determined by ASTM D2805-88.

Scrubbability (Abrasion Resistance)

The product shall demonstrate at least 100 cycles (200 separate strokes) before failure, as determined by American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D2486-89.

Wow! Pretty amazing, huh? In case you don’t have a PhD in Chemistry, let me translate the above for you, in plain, consumer-English - this is just a bunch of meaningless double-talk designed to provide the consumer with a lot of meaningless, confusing information. It conveys a lot of information, but tells you absolutely nothing about the environmental benefits of the product and is intentionally designed to confuse.

This is the classic definition of Greenwashing. Not only that, but what do “Washability”, “Hiding Power” and “Scrubbability” have to do with the environmental characteristics of the product? [click to continue…]

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The following article is written by fellow blogger, Daniel Harrsion of the UK.    Dan is a very talented writer and writes two blogs - DailyEcoTips and EnviroGadget.  Thanks for this one Dan!

Being eco-friendly is often great for your purse as well as being good
for the planet. By engaging children in fun green activities, you can
help them to become more eco-aware and teach them something at the
same time. So here are three simple ideas of things you can do to that
are both green and educational.

Get help with the shopping and recycling

Food manufacturers are now starting to produce recyclable packaging,
but it’s still unclear what products can or cannot be recycled.
Therefore, the next time you go shopping, ask the kids to help find
alternative products that exploit recyclable packaging. You can both
learn about which plastics and materials can be re-used or recycled
using public recycling facilities. Not only will the children learn
about different materials, it will help you to do the shopping whilst
minimising waste. You could also encourage them to re-use the cleaned
packaging in their craft projects too.

Get creative with old packaging

There’s still a large number of packaging types that cannot be
recycled, yet they still end up in landfill. Save the non-recyclable
packaging such as yogurt pots, gift wrapping paper, polystyrene, meat
packaging and jar lids, and store them for children to use in craft
projects! Craft materials can be expensive, so you can save money by
reusing materials that can not otherwise be recycled. Just make sure
that all of the packaging has been cleaned first!

Grow your own vegetables

You’ve probably heard the suggestion to grow your own vegetables many
times over. However, when it comes to children growing their own
vegetables, there are many advantages. Reports in the media recently
have suggested that too many children don’t know where their food
comes from, mostly due to the success of supermarkets.

By having their own vegetable patch, kids learn first-hand where food
comes from and what it takes to grow their own food. They can learn
about pests, weeds, lighting, natural fertilizers, irrigation and
different varieties of any given vegetable. Children also gain
confidence and pride by growing their own food too. Since vegetables
typically grow within in a year, the correlation between their efforts
and the results are really easy to see. Hopefully, the children will
be so enthused by the results that they choose to grow even more the
following year!

The great thing about those three ideas are that they are ways you can
spend time doing something with the children, and perhaps a way in
which you learn something too!

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In an age where everybody and everything seems to be “green”, green labels popping up on everything from vacuum cleaner bags to flashlight batteries. Even products that we purchase regularly are suddenly environmentally friendly. What changed and are these products really good for the environment?

I’m a big fan of being an informed consumer, and it’s important to understand the meaning behind all the green labeling that is making its way into the market and onto product packaging. Many products that claim to be environmentally friendly and good for the environment are flooding the market and even products that have been around for years are suddenly sporting new labels making all sorts of green claims. In the same way that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now requires disclosure of ingredients and amount (percentage and total grams) of all food products, the same trend is occurring in the green products industry.

Much of what I write about here on The GreenChameleon is oriented around educating consumers on environmental issues. My feeling and my conviction is that all of us need to be well informed on environmental issues if we are going to make informed decisions whether it be regarding purchasing products, recycling, or the waste we generate - everything we do has an impact on the environment. Only by being educated and informed are we able to make a positive impact on the environment around us.

In September I wrote an article entitled “Eco-Awareness – Are We Being GreenWashed” and in it, I stated that The environmental marketing firm TerraChoice wondered the same thing and studied over 1,000 products that claimed to be good for the environment in their ads. The results were quite startling. Of the over one thousand products evaluated, only .1% - yep you read it right, less than one tenth of one percent of the products actually did what the manufacturer claimed when it came to the environment.

This article show you the current labels being used, and outlines the current terms being used in the industry, product labeling, and the purpose of the labels being used as well as the meaning behind them. It’s difficult in an article like this to cover every label that is being used internationally (although some have international use).

The table I’ve put together is too big to fit on a standard post, so I’ve posted it here.

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As we’ve written about before here on The GreenChameleon (Biden Slings the B.S. on “Clean Coal”, Clean Green Energy and other Myths) the Coal industry continues to try to pass off its “Clean Coal” fantasy to the American public. Well this past week, that myth was dealt a significant blow when the clean coal dam burst, both literally and figuratively when a holding dyke released more than 525 million gallons (2.5 million cubic yards) of coal ash sludge into a Tennessee community. Just to give you a perspective on how much 525 million gallons of thick, toxic sludge we’re talking about here, when the Exxon Valdiz ran aground in March, 1989, it dumped 10.9 million gallons of oil on Prince Wiliam Sound’s Bligh Reef. The recent catastrophe in Tennessee released more than 48 times that amount.

We’re talking epic proportions here folks. This accident makes the Exxon Valdiz look like the proverbial “glass of spilled milk” by comparison. The coal ash sludge broke through a dike of a 40-acre holding pond at TVA’s Kingston coal-fired power plant covering 400 acres up to six feet deep, damaging 12 homes and wrecking a train.

Beyond the damage to the local terrain, wildlife, homes and businesses in the area, coal ash poses environmental hazards as well. Fly ash contains trace concentrations of many heavy metals that are known to be detrimental to health in sufficient quantities. These include nickel, vanadium, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, barium, chromium, copper, molybdenum, zinc, lead, selenium, uranium, thorium, and radium. The presence of uranium and other radioactive materials has led to research that concludes fly ash may be up to 100 times more radioactive than the lower levels of nuclear waste.^[15].

In an amazing move, the U.S. House of Representatives held an oversight hearing on the Federal government’s role in addressing health and environmental risks of fly ash. ^]The United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ has said in the past that coal fly ash does not need to be regulated as a hazardous waste. However, a revised risk assessment may change the way CCW is regulated. Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and others conclude that fly ash compares with common soils or rocks and should not be the source of alarm. However, community and environmental organizations have documented numerous environmental contamination and damage concerns.

According to the EPA the cleanup of the Tennessee accident will take at least several weeks, but could take years. Officials also said that the magnitude of this spill is such that the entire area could be declared a federal superfund site.

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