“Give ‘em an apple!”
That’s what one panelist sniped to another a couple days ago at a discussion I attended on green marketing. She was referring to what she thought another panelist should offer her kids instead of organic gummy worms – a product she railed against as a prime example of greenwashing. The co-panelist who she was addressing had said that she’d consider buying the organic candy for her kids.
I’m totally with her. I mean, really? Was the first panelist saying that kids should never have candy? That’s fine for her, but I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone that they should ban candy from Childhood (or Adulthood, for that matter). As with everything, I believe in balance. A balance between good and evil, pleasure and discipline.
Now that our society is fully steeped in the concepts of all things green and sustainable, we find various factions pointing fingers at others for not being green enough. Such is the way of a cultural shift in the making.
On that note, I venture here into reviewing some products I wanted to try out on my quest to be healthy – for myself, others and the environment. By the way, you should know that it’s been only a handful of years since I myself switched from No regard for the environment and Very Little regard for health, to greater amounts of both. I was a non-veggie-eating, non-organic-buying, occasional smoker who thought the three R’s stood only for reading, writing and arithmetic.
A new glass water bottle has hit the market. To my knowledge, it’s the only glass bottle vying for position among others that don’t rely on plastic. Glass Lifefactory bottles ($22 for 22 oz bottle) have more utility than the standard aluminum Sigg bottles ($22 for a 20 oz bottle) because they are completely dishwasher-safe, can be used with hot liquids, and you don’t have to worry about how long fruit juice has been sitting in them. Drawbacks: breakable; heavier. (Note: it was shipped in a tight-fitting, regular strength cardboard box with no internal packing material, and arrived intact; later, my husband dropped it on the pavement and it survived beautifully.)
Now, you can go into an investigation as to how sustainably each bottle is produced and recycled, but I’ll leave that for an expert on such cradle-to-grave matters.
wrapped around 2 rolled-up tortillas
Next, my 7-year-old has been testing the Abeego food wrapper ($20) for the past month. Abeego graciously agreed to send me a free sample for this test. I wrap his sandwich every day in a hemp/cotton cloth infused with beeswax and plant extracts. He unwinds the string to unwrap and enjoy lunch handily. I’ve tried other cloth wrappers, but they all rely on a plastic component (that comes in direct contact with the food). Drawbacks: must hand wash; not sure how long it will last.
a tiffin (apparently invented in India)
I also like tiffins – stainless steel food containers. They’re good for messy food or food requiring a fork. Drawbacks: bulky; can’t be molded around food; has more than one part.
So, like everything else, these products have pros and cons that run the gamut of considerations including price, efficacy and health and environmental impact. I suspect, in the long run, that being supportive of each other’s efforts to make purchasing and lifestyle decisions will work better than sniping.
Where do you think green ends and greenwashing begins?
Posted by katsong 
