When we do shopping, we can see the images of leaves, animals, and the blue sky on products. The products are labeled "Certified", "100 % Organic", and many others. Is there enough supportive evidence to prove it? No. This is called "Greenwashing". Some companies do greenwash and mislead consumers.
Greenwashing is a compound word of "green" and "whitewashing". It is an act of giving misleading information to consumers that make them believe that a product or a service they provide is environmentally friendly when it is actually not. There are some kinds of greenwashing such as environmental images, green-colored bottles, brown wrapping paper, and many more. It makes consumers feel that a product is eco-friendly. However, there is not enough information showing that the product is eco-friendly. It can even deepen global warming and environmental pollution.
There is an example of greenwashing. In October, Starbucks Korea held "Reusable Cup Day". It was held to send a message of sustainability and environmental friendliness. However, Green Korea activist, Heo Seong-Eun, said that the campaign lacked sincerity. He said that the premise of this campaign is to reduce the use of single-use cups and encourage consumers to use multi-use cups. However, any cups that can be used multiple times are multi-use cups. He also said that if consumers buy the cups more than one, the other cups will be thrown as trash. Then, environmental pollution will still be raised, unlike Starbucks' premise. He said that offering discounts to people who brought tumblers would have encouraged more people to use multi-use cups.
Greenwashing is companies' misleading information that makes consumers think their products are environmentally friendly though they are not. Companies should stop greenwashing and should produce products that are really eco-friendly.
By Oh Kyoung-Taek
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대현중학교, 1학년