How Do You Determine If The Item You Are Buying Are Really Green

July 15, 2010 by ftsword37  
Filed under Green Living

The ideas of living green, and self sustainable living, have grown tremendously in the last several years. Consumers are paying more attention to the things they purchase, and businesses have been modifying both their merchandise, and the way they do business, in an effort to cash in on a more organic minded economy.

The problem many of us have, is trying to figure out if the product we want to buy is actually an earth friendly product, or just some shiny, fancy label the manufacturer put on the package to make us believe it is green. So what can one do? No one has the time to take numerous hours investigating products before buying them. This is made even more difficult due to the fact that many businesses these days do not offer a brick and mortar store that you can go to. Just about everything is done online these days, even our shopping.

There are currently multiple agencies that research products and determine just how earth friendly they really are. Most companies, that are making a honest attempt to make more eco-friendly products, will go through a very long and difficult process involving many organizations, including a third party certification. The typical reason for the third party certification is to make sure that the certification is obtained by a agency without financial interest in the success of the product or the producer.

Green Seal is one of the largest eco labeling agencies operating today. This non-profit has been in business since 1989, and looks at the whole life cycle of a product before determining its certification. Their standards have been developed using EPA and ISO criteria as well as public input and third part certification. They have a very lengthy process, but if a product boasts this seal, you can be quite sure it is an earth friendly product.

GreenBlue does not declare products as green. They actually offer manufacturers, an elaborate database that lists information on ?green formula ingredients?. They help the manufacturer in determining the correct combination of pure ingredients for the results they want to achieve. Most of the information in the database is third party certified, so you and the manufacturer can be certain that the item is earth friendly.

The Green Label program was implemented by the Carpet and Rug Institute in 1992. They began adding vacuum cleaners to the items that they test in 2000. Vacuum cleaners are tested for dirt extraction, dust confinement, and fabric retention. Their primary focus is air quality. Any vacuum with this label is deemed to be environmentally friendly.

EcoLogo, originally formed in Canada, certifies products in nearly 200 categories. They also base their determination on the full life cycle of the product, and consider several aspects of the product. Their criteria is reviewed every few years so that they can stay up to date on new scientific developments.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other agencies and organizations that certify products, ingredients, and companies as green, organic, or earth friendly. In short, if you are able to locate a certification by a legitimate agency then you can be sure that the item you are buying is in fact environmentally friendly, and not some sad marketing ploy.

Access helpful knowledge about Free Traffic System - make sure to go through the site. The times have come when proper information is really within one click, use this opportunity.

Comments

Comments are closed.