Do you ever have the experience of buying something and
wondering if you’ve been “greenwashed?” The term refers to companies that
market a product as “green” when in reality it’s actually not so green. Companies
can be nimble creatures when it comes to finding ways to make more money from
the same product. As the public becomes increasingly aware of the need for
environmentally friendly products, it’s fairly easy for an adept marketing
department to slap an “all natural” or “earth friendly” claim on the same
product they’ve been selling for years.
As in the claim “compostable.” Without a working definition,
you could almost say everything is compostable. It might take a million years
if it’s Styrofoam or a little less if it’s plastic. My discover card is compostable.
When I needed a new card a few years back, I went online to choose my own
personalized card. Of the many, many options, one featured polar bears and
claimed to be “compostable”. In my fervor to be “green” I thought – great! I
want a compostable card! Whenever a store clerk commented on my cute polar
bears, I’d tell her, “I could really care less about polar bears but the card
is compostable!”
In reality, my compostable card will never be composted
(although the numbers are wearing off rather quickly). How likely is it that I
will toss a credit card with a rather high lending limit into my compost pile
when it expires? Seems like a dangerous practice. I may test out the theory
when the current card expires in a controlled composting environment. Another
fun project for my skeptical hubby! I don’t recall any claims as to the length
of time it would take to compost my credit card when I selected it. And what’s
even more curious is that when I went on the discover site today to hunt down
that information, the polar bears were still available, but no longer labeled
“compostable.” Hmmm.
