Have you been buying “earth friendly” “biodegradable” baby wipes because you think they’re better for your baby and the environment?

Though some wipes may live up to their claims, those made by Earth’s Best and The Honest Co. don’t appear to be among them.

That’s why the law firm of Gutride Safier is investigating allegations that both companies falsely claim that the pre-moistened wipes they manufacture are “earth friendly” or “biodegradable” when in fact, they contain some plastic or other material that makes them  incapable of biodegrading in the environment— definitely NOT “earth friendly!”

If you have purchased  baby wipes sold by Earth’s Best and/or The Honest Co., please read this entire post and consider contacting Gutride Safier, as you may qualify to be a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit.

Disclosure: Gutride Safier has retained Big Green Purse to help inform consumers about this issue and let consumers know where to get more information. As always, our editorial opinions remain our own.

“Greenwashing” To Sell Baby Wipes

Many parents worry about the health and environmental impact of the use and disposal of baby wipes. Though disposable wipes can be very convenient, questions have been raised about the chemicals used to keep them moist and fragrant.

In addition, though some of the wipes are being marketed as “earth friendly” or “biodegradable,” it appears that the wipes under investigation are not made from earth friendly, biodegradable materials.

The wipes manufactured by Earth’s Best are made with polyester, a plastic composed of various chemical compounds typically derived from petroleum.

The Honest wipes are made from rayon. Although rayon is derived from cellulose (i.e., plant) fiber, allegedly neither polyester nor rayon are “biodegradable” because “they do not completely decompose into elements found in nature in a reasonably short time” after they’re thrown away.

If a product doesn’t biodegrade in a reasonable period of time once it’s thrown away, the Federal Trade Commission does not consider it biodegradable. 

Independent Testing Supports “Greenwashing” Concerns

An independent lab analyzed the fibers in samples of both Earth’s Best Baby Wipes and Honest Wipes. Here are the results of the analyses:

Earth’s Best Baby Wipes (Made by the The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.)

• The wipes’ substrate is composed of 62.8% polyester, as well as .7% rayon. (Substrate is the foundation material used to make the wipes.) Polyester is a synthetic polymer that is essentially plastic. Neither polyester nor rayon are “biodegradable” because they do not completely decompose into elements found in nature in a reasonably short time after customary disposal.

Honest Wipes (Made by The Honest Co.)

• The wipes’ substrate is 100% rayon, which is not biodegradable as explained above.

Honest Co. has added a disclaimer to its packaging noting that the wipes will “biodegrade & compost in municipal/industrial facilities.”

What this actually means is that you cannot throw your wipes in your own compost pile because they will not degrade there. Furthermore, if you do not have access to municipal composting, you will still have to throw the wipes in the trash, where they will not biodegrade.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides have specifically advised marketers “not to make an unqualified degradable claim” like this one “unless they can prove that the entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within one year after customary disposal.”

Since customary disposal for something like wipes is the trash, they don’t appear to meet the FTC’s green guidelines.

What Can You Do?

If you purchased baby wipes from The Honest Co. or Earth’s Best, you may qualify to participate in a class action lawsuit. You can visit Gutride Safier’s website to fill out a confidential online form that asks for your name, contact information, and occupation so you can obtain more information.

Filling out the form is free and does not obligate you to take any next steps. It merely indicates that you are as concerned about the greenwashing claims of the named companies as other consumers are. An attorney from Gutride Safier will get in touch with you. There is no cost to you.

Why Does A Class Action Suit Make A Difference?

A class action is a type of lawsuit in which one or more people sue on behalf of a larger group of people, referred to as “the class.” A class action saves courts time and allows a single judge to hear all the concerns at the same time, and to resolve claims for all similarly affected people. If the court agrees to certify the complaints as a class action, all class members will benefit from any judgments or settlements in their favor.

Class action lawsuits can be highly effective at getting offending companies to change their greenwashing practices. Often, a court order requires the defendant to stop the offending practice. The defendant may have to end a false advertising campaign, and could be ordered to change product labels to stop using certain misleading words or to include warnings or better disclosures to ensure the public will not be tricked again. Other times, the defendant may be ordered to provide a refund to class members. The attorneys at Gutride Safier will answer any questions you may have about false advertising claims and class actions.

Start Here

If you purchased baby wipes from Earth’s Best or The Honest Co. because you believed they were biodegradable or earth friendly, and are dismayed to learn that they may be falsely advertised, take action by contacting Gutride Safier attorneys.

You will be legally represented at no cost to you, and if the lawsuit succeeds, you will play an important role in holding companies accountable for the green claims they make.

Click here to complete the form.

What If You Need to Use Baby Wipes?

With my two babies, I used plain old washcloths.

I kept clean cloths in one leak-proof container (either a Ziplock plastic bag or a rinsed out plastic tub), and used cloths in another similar container.

If I did not anticipate being near water, I’d wet the clean wipes in advance. If I was changing my babies at home or in a restroom with a changing table, I simply moistened the cloths from the faucet, cleaned up the baby, and stowed the dirty cloths when I was done (rinsing them out in the toilet first if they were poopy).

These days, you can buy flannel and cotton baby wipes like these, or you can make your own by cutting soft flannel into 8×8 squares.

Moisten them with warm water from the sink or from a water bottle. I personally always applied a little protective ointment on my babies when I changed them, so don’t think the oils and fragrances in most wipes are really necessary.

Information about Gutride Safier

For more than a decade, Gutride Safier LLP has been a national leader in advancing the rights of individuals against powerful companies and government. Gutride Safier’s attorneys have successfully litigated class actions to achieve nationwide settlements involving dozens of products and industries and are currently litigating many others. Hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement benefits have been made available to consumers and small businesses in cases alleging consumer fraud, false advertising, and racketeering. Gutride Safier’s work can be viewed here.

The post Stop Greenwashing “Earth Friendly” “Biodegradable” Baby Wipes appeared first on Big Green Purse.

* Products labeled “natural” may contain some biological ingredients, but they may also include synthetic dyes and fragrances.

* “Hypoallergenic” has no medical meaning. The word was invented by advertisers who used it in a cosmetics campaign in 1953.  Says the Food and Drug Administation, “There are no federal standards or definitions that govern the use of the term hypoallergenic. [It] means whatever a particular company wants it to mean.”

* “Biodegradable” should mean that, when a product is exposed to air, moisture, bacteria, or other organisms, it will break down and return to its natural state within a reasonably short time. However, no government entity verifies the accuracy of a biodegradable claim; the term is often used simply to provide a marketing edge to a product that otherwise has no real environmental attributes.

* “Free range” implies that a meat or poultry product, including eggs, comes from an animal that was raised in the open air or was free to roam. But a vendor can give his livestock as little as five minutes of fresh air and still make the claim. Free range…or free rein to greenwash you, the concerned ecoshopper?

* “Fragrance-free” suggests a product has no natural perceptible smell; however, synthetic ingredients may have been added to mask odors — and the dangerous phthalates that create them.

What’s the point of this litany?

Currently, no government standards define specific “eco” terms like the ones above. Companies are free to use these words to gain a marketing advantage regardless of their accuracy. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibits deceptive advertising and has issued guidelines encouraging manufacturers to substantiate environmental claims, but the agency rarely enforces its own rules.

This is a problem because consumers who want to protect themselves and the environment are increasingly reading product labels — and walking away confused. Should they buy the “green” cleaner — even though the label also says “Warning – Hazardous” because it actually contains toxic chemicals that can irritate the lungs or eyes?  Lipstick promises to make you beautiful. Should you use it, even though it  may contain lead? And what’s with those “fuel efficient” hybrids that get less than 20 mpg?

How much easier these choices would be if products were required to meet meaningful standards set by independent third parties, a point Mary Hunt over at In Women We Trust has been arguing for years, and a point being made again this month by the members of the Green Moms Carnival, which Mary is also hosting.

You could avoid most greenwashing traps and label ambiguities if companies adopted comprehensive standards guaranteeing that their products were fully “sustainable” – that they protected public health and the environment throughout their entire commercial “life cycle.” That includes the extraction of raw materials through their manufacture and use to final disposal or reuse in a new product.

Ideally, such standards would be set at the federal level. But if you’ve been watching the health care debate, you know how tough passing new regulations can be. That’s why there’s so much interest in Wal-Mart’s recent jump into the sustainability arena. The retail giant is planning to develop a sustainability index against which it will judge the vendors that supply products to its stores.  Want to do business with Wal-Mart? You’ll have to be able to vault over their bar.

How high that bar turns out to be remains to be seen.  Given Wal-Mart’s role as the world’s retail superpower, the higher we can convince them to set the bar, the better off we’ll all be.

To that end — and in honor of Blog Action Day — now would be a good time to contact Wal-Mart and urge the company to set the most meaningful environmental standards possible.

The post We Need Meaningful Standards to Protect the Planet — and Us, too. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

A recent poll shows just how confused consumers are.

Called Eco Pulse, the national study, which was reported in Brand Week, asked shoppers open-ended and multiple-choice questions about green issues. The results are disheartening for those of us who spend our time trying to help clarify marketplace and lifestyle choices.

According to the research, many people still don’t have a clue whether what their purchases actually make a difference. Neither can they vouch for the eco-status of the companies whose products they buy. If you ever wondered whether the certification efforts of the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability and other organizations were worthwhile, studies like these leave no question: certified green standards would help hold companies accountable while shining a bright green light on choices that actually are as eco-friendly as they claim to be.

Specifically, here’s what EcoPulse found:

* Half (49%) of respondents said a company’s environmental record is important in their purchasing decisions. But only 21% said they had actually chosen one product over another because the company was a good eco-citizen. And it gets worse: only 7% could name the environmental product they purchased.

– Despite the intense efforts of the past few years to educate people about climate change, only 57% agreed that “Global warming, or climate change, is occurring, and it is primarily caused by human activity.” At this point, shouldn’t that number be closer to 100%?

– The study also asked consumers to name which features a home should have for them to consider it green. Four in 10 (42%) said they didn’t know, while 28% said solar, 12% said compact fluorescent light bulbs and 10% named Energy Star appliances. Nothing else really registered. In a second survey that listed 17 features, consumers were asked to check those a home must have before they’d deem it green, reported Brand Week. The average number was 10.4.

– People weren’t even sure what makes a cleaning product green. Though the top-rated answer – “no harmful toxic ingredients or chemicals” – is essentially correct, the runner up  – “the packaging is made of recycled or recyclable materials” – is important, but secondary to the product’s actual ingredients.

The survey posed some juxtapositions that are inherently false, such as whether people would put their personal comfort ahead of the environment. Of course, most respondents answered yes, even though quality of life usually improves, not diminishes, the greener one’s life gets.

And it should be no surprise that 40% of those queried felt “skeptical,” “irritated,” and “guilty” when the media focus the spotlight on people’s environmental impact. No one likes to acknowledge they’ve screwed up. The good news is that fully 60% said they were “better educated” or “glad” to be aware of the crisis the planet faces and what we can do about it.

Overall, cynicism seems to reign in the mind of the green consumer. When asked why companies adopt environmentally friendly practices, the most common response (47%) was “to make their company look better to the public.” Only 13% believed it was “because their owners/shareholders care about the environment.”

Businesses that actually go to the trouble of ensuring that their products and services meet independent, certified sustainable standards could go a long way towards reversing these numbers. They’d also help out consumers, who increasingly need a straightforward way to avoid the greenwash that is keeping them from parting with their greenbacks.

The post We need sustainable standards so consumers know what to buy. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

All of which makes for a very exciting time to have a new environmental book out – especially one that aims to make sense of what’s “green” versus what’s being “greenwashed.”  That’s the question I’ve been asked most frequently, especially during the dozens of radio interviews I’ve done since the book’s pub date March 1. Everyone wants to do something to make a difference. Not everyone knows where to start, or what purchases are really worth the money. Words like “natural,” “biodegradable,” and “eco-friendly” throw people for a loop. Do they really mean the product or service deserves Mother Nature’s green star? Not necessarily, and a big part of my job right now involves directing shoppers to certified goods that actually live up to their marketing claims.

I’ve been impressed that so many people have turned out to my book signings – given that another big concern for people who want to go green is lack of time! Most people don’t realize that being “eco” can actually simplify your life –  sometimes I need to roll out the light bulb example to prove my point (a compact fluorescent light bulb lasts ten times as long as an incandescent, so put one in and forget about it for seven years…).

Speaking of light bulbs, perhaps what’s most gratifying about the book is watching the proverbial light bulb go on behind people’s eyes when they realize how much clout their consumer power has. This has been especially true for women, most of whom haven’t realized before that, because they spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace, they have the power to tell manufacturers what to make (rather than constantly hear from companies about what they should buy).

If not just the book sales, but the e-mails, too, are any indication, women are glad to throw off the old cliché about “loving to shop” as they embrace their potential to become the true arbiters of the new green marketplace. What’s not to love about that?

The post EARTH DAY COUNTDOWN: The (Green) Maelstrom appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Given the thousands of green products being introduced these days, and the vague marketing claims being used to sell them, you don’t want to blow your budget just to keep up with the newest “eco,” “herbal,” or “biodegradable” fad – especially if the claim turns out to be more greenwashing than green.

On the other hand, genuinely earth-friendly products do help minimize your environmental impact. Every organic cotton T-shirt you buy, for instance, helps reduce the use of toxic agricultural chemicals, protecting the air and water. Moreover, the same tee waves like a bright green flag in front of conventional cotton producers, reminding them that your money is filling their organic competitors’ coffers — and giving them an incentive to switch to organic practices if they haven’t already done so.

The challenge is in knowing how to avoid the “greenwash” so you can promote more green. A few clear principles, excerpted from the upcoming Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, will help you identify an ecobargain from a rip-off, while getting manufacturers to transition as quickly as possible to the most earth-friendly practices available.

THE BIG GREEN PURSE SHOPPING PRINCIPLES

1) Buy less.
2) Read the label.
3) Support sustainable standards.
4) Look for third-party verification.
5) Choose fewer ingredients.
6) Pick less packaging.
7) Buy local.

1.  Buy less. This should be a “no brainer.” Consumerism – buying what we don’t need, over and over again – drives unnecessary manufacturing that fuels climate change, pollutes the air and water, and destroys the places in Nature we love. Remember “reduce, reuse, recycle”? It still makes sense. Plus, when you’re not buying, you’re not getting fooled by dubious marketing claims. If you don’t trust the source, don’t buy it.

   2.  Read the label. We read food labels to avoid trans fats, sugar, salt and carbohydrates. We can read product labels to avoid greenwashing words like “natural” and “planet friendly” that aren’t backed up by standards or third-party verification (see below). When it comes to cleansers and other household  goods, avoid products labeled “caution,” “warning,”, “danger,” and “poison,” all of which indicate the item is hazardous to you and the environment.

3.  Support sustainable standards. An increasing number of companies are proving they’re green by manufacturing according to sustainable standards that govern the product’s “life cycle,” beginning with the raw materials and ending with its disposal or re-use. The SMART standard, for example, covers flooring, lighting, building materials, and other consumer products.

  4.  Look for third-party verification. In the absence of universal sustainable standards, if a company says its product is good for the earth, your first question should be, “Who else says so?” Reliable eco claims are backed up by an independent institution or nonprofit organization that has investigated the manufacturer’s claim so you don’t have to. Look for labels from groups like Forest Stewardship Council, Energy Star and the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Organic.

5.  Choose fewer ingredients. A long list of ingredients often indicates the presence of questionable chemicals that may be harmful to you or the environment. This is especially true for personal care products, food, and cleansers. Simplify what you buy.

6.  Pick less packaging. Regardless of the marketing claims a product makes, you can make an immediate impact by buying goods that come wrapped as simply as possible. For starters, buy in bulk, choose concentrates, and pick products in containers you can easily recycle (hint: glass and cans are more easily recycled than plastic). Carting home your packages in your own bags helps reduce packaging, too.

7.  Buy local.  Avoid the higher energy costs involved in transporting goods long distances. Supporting local farmers and businesses also increases the likelihood that U.S. environmental and health laws and regulations will be followed.

Bottom Line: Ignore boasts that a product is eco-chic, earth-safe, or planet-neutral. Stick to the principles above to ensure that your Big Green Purse has the kind of big green impact that will make a difference both in the marketplace and on the environment.

The post Big Green Purse Principles Can Help You Make the Right Eco-Choices appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Just how does Crest slip a little Nature into its tubes?  Mostly, by the power of suggestion.

The company claims pure peppermint oil gives Crest “a natural peppermint twist.”

The mint and green tea version seems designed to appeal to the millions of people who drink green tea for its many natural healing properties. (Thanks, but I’d rather drink my green tea than brush my teeth with it.)

The lemon and mint option wins the prize for bragging it’s “natural” the most times: “Introducing a toothpaste with the fresh, clean sensation of natural lemon extract. With a natural twist of citrus, Citrus Clean Mint gives you a natural clean feeling all day and all night.” All those natural claims seem a little unnatural to me.

Here’s the topper: Crest’s Nature’s Expressions web site provides 13 tips to help you “Add a little Nature to your life.” But out of the 13, none of them encourages visitors to go outside and actually experience the natural world.

Tip #10 suggests you “hang a picture of your favorite elements from nature – sea, trees, flowers, animals – where your eyes frequently go. For instance, over the telephone.”

Tip #12 encourages you to put your pillows outside in the sun to freshen up. Hmmm… what about brushing your teeth outside? At least, you’d be getting outdoors.

The only thing that’s natural – from an advertising point of view — about Crest’s new toothpaste is the way the company is trying to capitalize on the green marketing frenzy that’s driving commerce these days.

Actually…in my circles, we don’t call that natural. We call that greenwashing.

Thumbs down, Crest.

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