By Minttu Monika Marjomaa
As sustainable lifestyles have gained popularity, so has the tendency of corporations to boast about their eco-friendliness while actually doing little to help the environment - also known as greenwashing. Common examples of this are oil and gas giant BP rebranding itself as “Beyond Petroleum” or H&M introducing a “conscious” line while churning out garments in sweatshops and sending them to the incinerator if they don’t sell.
This extent of this phenomenon inspired London-based Ellie Beasley-Gould to found The Greenish: an online marketplace dedicated to ecological education and full transparency.
“It’s so frustrating,” says Besley-Gould, 33.
“Especially for busy people who really want to live greener but don’t have the time to investigate brands. Through the platform, I was looking at ways to cut through greenwashing and present clear choices that consumers can make, secure in the knowledge that I’ve done the due diligence. “
Bamboo, cotton and bioplastics are often marketed as sustainable materials, so here’s a breakdown of what you need to know about their environmental cost.
Bamboo:
Bamboo has long been seen as some sort of miracle crop - it grows fast, can be harvested without killing the plant and actually fight erosion due to its regenerative effects on the soil.
But there’s a catch - as Western consumers increasingly covet bamboo toothbrushes, furniture and utensils, the suddenly valuable crop has begun to be grown in monocultures.
When one kind of a plant, even bamboo, is grown on the same field every year, the soil becomes depleted of nutrients and viable for pests. This means fertilizers and pesticides are used, which increase the erosion and pollute the air and water supplies of the area.
In China, which holds a monopoly in the bamboo production, natural forests are cleared to make way for the monocropped fields, which means that, ironically, the endangered giant pandas might become victims of the global hunger for bamboo.
Cotton:
You’re probably aware of how convenient cotton is: it can keep you warm and cool, it’s easy to wash and care for, it’s comfortable and super versatile - cotton is used in clothing, rope, animal feed and even some currencies.
But, as the most prominent non-food crop in the world, it’s mostly grown in huge fields with no crop variety and lots of pesticides, fertilizers and erosion.
Chemicals used in cotton farming have been linked to devastating effects in the communities around them, with Uzbekistan suffering from skyrocketing rates of anaemia and tuberculosis due to insecticide-laden drinking water and most of the global throat cancer cases being found in the Aral Sea region.
Organic cotton is definitely better but nowhere near ideal. The crop is extremely thirsty and requires constant irrigation in farming. It takes over 2,700 litres of water just to make one T-shirt.
Bioplastics:
There’s a lot of buzz about bioplastics with new promising inventions being publicised every other week. The term “bioplastic” itself is vague, and in essence, it’s just an umbrella term for a polymer (A little Chemistry 101 here: a compound with long, repeated molecule chains) derived from a biological material other than petroleum - which is what normal plastic is made of.
They’re typically made from corn or sugar cane, but now also from rice starch, banana peel, frying oil, shrimp, avocado, seaweed, bee nesting materials, fish waste and algae.
It sounds so easy and promising: we can keep our convenient food packaging, and protective delivery boxes and just chuck them in the caddy.
But there’s a catch - even though they are technically biodegradable, they still take longer to break down than regular food waste and cause blockages in the compost system. Currently, a bioplastic only needs to have 20% of renewable materials, so you might still be buying something that’s petroleum-derived.
Conclusion
As always, beware of the green label and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Brianne Pritchard, who’s just about to open a zero-waste store in Mansfield, believes conscious consumption takes work:
“We’re so used to getting everything fast and in a way that’s convenient for us, but sometimes you need to go the extra mile to live sustainably,” says Pritchard, 42.
“I recommend making a habit of planning your shopping beforehand, resisting impulse buying and supporting your local businesses, the ones you can trust to work ethically.”
Besley-Gould thinks along the same lines:
“One of the ways I simplify is to concentrate on just trying to consume less - less packaging, less buying, less travelling. Makes for a simpler process. But the reality is that we all have to eat.”
Now test your eco-knowledge with our quiz!
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