E-Waste Watch

What is Greenwashing

Greenwashing is a market strategy (greenly) in which companies will make claims about their products and/or processes being environmentally friendly when in reality they are not. They do this to capitalize on the increasing demand for sustainable products. Sometimes companies will fully lie about their practices and sometimes they will highlight a desirable aspect while hiding the negative aspects. Companies greenwash by rebranding, repackaging, or renaming products to advertise them as being eco-friendly. It is important to note that not all companies who advertise as being environmentally friendly are greenwashing, there is such a thing as green marketing where a company that is genuinely making moves to be less damaging or use less damaging ingredients. Companies that are genuine will provide proof or plans of action to prove that they are doing what they say they are doing. It becomes greenwashing when the company does not supply any proof of the claim or plans of action to shift practices to having less of a damaging impact (investopia).

Greenwashing can take on many different forms in packaging and advertising claims. One way companies will greenwash is by adding images of nature or animals which illudes to the product being environmentally friendly with no support to back up that idea. Another way is misleading labels, where companies will put on the labels that the product is verified, but fail to list what organization it is verified by. As for greenwashing in advertising, there is red herring or partial truths, which is a greenwashing technique that companies use to highlight a positive aspect of the product that could be sustainable in some way while hiding or failing to show other aspects like their production that is environmentally damaging. Irrelevant claims are a form of advertising that can be considered greenwashing. Irrelevant claims on a product are claims that do not set the product apart from competitor products like stating that the product does not have an ingredient which is not prohibited by law. Lastly, approximative terms are vague terms about being eco-friendly that are hard to verify, because there is no organization or practice behind them and the terms can be defined in different ways. For example environmentally friendly is an approximative term because it is something that is hard to confirm or deny. Green and sustainable can also be approximative terms. (greenly)

Greenwashing in Tech Companies

It is important to understand the concept of greenwashing when it comes to e-waste because it is up to companies to make products that can be recycled to reduce their impacts. E-waste is a lot more toxic than regular waste (Greenpeace) and difficult to recycle (MakeUseOf). Most of the e-waste ends up being imported and the majority of it ends up in Asia (the guardian) specifically China, with more than 70% of e-waste ending up in piles there (Wikipedia). From there electronic waste is taken apart and typically incinerated which releases chemicals and is treated with harsh chemicals. We cannot recycle our e-waste if the products are not recyclable. So electronic companies need to not only be transparent about their products but also ensure their products can be recycled truly. Greenwashing all comes down to companies not being honest. Apple produces a new phone every year with deals on getting a new phone. Old phones are either being thrown out because they are broken or can be reused or resold, but everyone wants a new phone with a better camera. Samsung is one of the tech companies producing the largest amount of e-waste. E-waste and electronic consumption are something that needs to be reeled in and cracked. Some tech companies decided they wanted to hop on the sustainable bandwagon and have released statements stating they want to be more environmentally friendly.

Apple

Apple has come out with goals and plans of action to be more environmentally friendly. They have stated they are planning to lower their carbon footprint. Their website states 20% of all material shipped in products in 2022 came from recycled and renewable sources. (Apple) They have a page on their website with their goals and actions about renewable materials, built with clean energy, low carbon shipping methods, less energy use, and recyclable (apple). Apple claims the new iPhone 15 is their first carbon-neutral product (Euronews), however, they have also been called out for planned obsolescence in the past. Apple has intentionally restricted older product performances by not allowing updates on older phones to the new operating system. This forces users to get new phones sooner, even though there is nothing actually wrong with the product, it is just being manipulated (MakeUseOf). In addition, they come out with a new phone every year, which increases the amount of waste produced in the production and waste of old devices. This leads to some questions about whether Apple is really finally making changes to genuinely lower its impact or if they are greenwashing. Coming back to the new iPhone 15 being carbon neutral, climate scientist David Ho states There is no such thing as a carbon-neutral product. This makes it seem like it is purely a marketing strategy. The only way a company can put carbon neutral on a product is if they buy carbon offset credits (Euronews), which are almost like permission slips that grant them permission to emit carbon (carbon credits) in exchange for something that is supposed to offset that emission like planting trees (offset guide). So Apple is either being responsible finally or misrepresenting the word carbon neutral (cnbn). The word carbon neutral has come into question because of this, using carbon neutral makes it seem like the product does not admit any carbon, when in reality it still is but is taking counteractive methods to reduce it, which has the same goal but is not the same thing. Despite that electronic companies use this as a way to help it is not the best solution. Emissions are better not being produced rather than being produced than neutralized. The best thing tech companies can do is increase the life of the devices. The European Environmental Bureau did a study that showed that increasing the lifespan of our phones and other devices by just one year would reduce carbon emissions in the EU by as much as removing 2 million cars from our roads (Euronews). Having products that can live longer is more sustainable than the environmental commitments tech companies are making towards our planet. However, Apple is still releasing an iPhone 16 series (digital trends), still emitting carbon, and encouraging overconsumption.

Samsung

Like Apple, they also participated in planned obsolescence and were fined for it. They did the opposite of Apple, however, by encouraging a new update for older phones with the statement that it was going to prevent malfunctions when in reality it caused these malfunctions. In addition, they started charging more for repairing the devices that “malfunctioned,” which then sped up the purchase of a new phone. In the past few years they have come out with statements and goals to promise to be better, but their past and current actions state otherwise. Samsung has come out with plans for net zero carbon emissions with the timeline of 2050(circularise), which is great except they are the biggest waste-generating tech company (Statista). In addition, they have pledged a big goal like this in the past and have failed to meet it. They pledged to be operating off of renewable energy by 2020, but only 20% was operating with renewable energy by then and the other portion still buried fossil fuels (circularis). Instead of their greenhouse gas emissions decreasing they have actually increased instead, which you would think with all their “plans” that would not be the case (koreatimes). There are many more instances where Samsung has said one thing and then did another. They stated they were going to stop sourcing power from coal power plants and, while still trying to set up coal power plants for years. To ice the cake they are not very transparent about their disposal methods or anything about if they are planning on reusing resources (circularis). Tech companies can use new technology to make their products greener, but their effects will be canceled out if they don’t stop emitting carbon and other greenhouse gasses and take measures to ensure their products can and will be properly disposed of, meaning not incinerated (koreatimes).

Red-flags to Look for

As a consumer there are things we can look out for that can help us determine whether a company or product is greenwashing you. There are things to look out for on labels as well as general knowledge circumstances in which companies cannot put certain things on labels

On Labels

One red flag as previously mentioned is unverifiable terms such as sustainable and eco-friendly. These terms are harder to define because there is no organization or standards products need to meet for companies to put these on their labels, meaning anyone can put these terms on their products (investopia). These two terms are on the FTC’s list of words to look out for on labels as terms often associated with greenwashing. Other things to look out for are claims about being less environmentally damaging with nothing to back these claims with. For a company to use carbon offset they need to have science and accounting to back their claim up. Make sure that if a product says certified by “organization”, the brand is connected to that organization. Look out for products that say they are free from but have another equally bad or damaging ingredient. When a product states less waste/less toxic then make sure it has something it is being compared to, because it can’t be less than something if there is nothing to compare it to. Look out for the materials/ingredients of a product that says made with renewable materials because there should be specifics. Recycled content is misleading if it uses reconditioned or remanufactured components (greenbiz).

False Claims

There are some other claims that companies can make other than saying they are sustainable that are considered greenwashing. For a product to be non-toxic it needs to be backed up by science. If a product states it is compostable or degradable but cannot compost in a timely manner or break down in a year it will end up in a landfill and therefore cannot be called either one of these. An item can only be called recyclable if there is a recycling infrastructure that can recycle this specific product in 60% of where the product is sold or it will also end up in the landfill. If a product says ozone-safe but it contains anything that has been known to erode the ozone layer the company is being dishonest. A product can only claim it is made with renewable energy if it buys renewable energy credits (recs). Lastly, if an item says refillable but the company does not sell any refills it cannot be called refillable (greenbiz).