Report sheds light on big brands like Coca Cola and how they 'greenwash' their products

New research claims that huge businesses like Coca-Cola and Unilever are misleading consumers by claiming that their plastic packaging is environmentally friendly reports, The Guardian. "The number of products labelled as sustainable or green has increased exponentially in recent years, with many household brands guilty of greenwashing. Yet, as businesses claim progress towards sustainability, emissions continue to rise, extraction increases, and overproduction spirals." Some of the most prevalent instances of "greenwashing," according to the Changing Markets Foundation (CMF), include claims that businesses are intercepting and using "ocean-bound" or "recyclable" plastic to address the plastic pollution catastrophe. According to CMF analysis, the promises made regarding how the goods address the plastic pollution crisis are made with scant evidence, this is done to hide from consumers the true effects of plastic.

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"Greenwashing lulls us into a false sense of security – a smokescreen that conceals the continued exploitation of the planet and allows those responsible to get away with it."

Campaign manager at Changing Markets Foundations, George Harding-Rolls said: “Our latest investigation exposes a litany of misleading claims from household names consumers should be able to trust. This is just the tip of the iceberg and it is of crucial importance that regulators take this issue seriously.”

The investigation, published on the CMF website, asserts that many brands are greenwashing their products. The culprits include "I am not plastic" claims made by Kim Kardashian's clothing line Skims, Unilever pouches of washing liquid, Procter & Gamble's Head and Shoulders shampoo bottles and many more.

Sian Sutherland, A Plastic Planet co-founder, said: “Plastic is now a very powerful and emotional word. We all feel the plastic guilt when we fill our shopping baskets. Brands have been exploiting this over recent years, using age-old marketing techniques that are totally misleading or downright fake, pretending that the problem is being fixed when actually it is getting worse, with plastic production set to treble by 2040.”

The examples given in this study demonstrate how brands offer materials and market goods as being better for the environment when in reality they either use a small amount of "ocean-bound" plastic gathered from various clean-ups, which are not recyclable at all or are just marginally recyclable.

(With inputs from agencies)

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