Half of environmental claims about products are full of crap, says EU

Around half of environmental claims made about advertised products are "vague, misleading or unfounded information about products' environmental characteristics," says research from the European Commission. Of hundreds of claims assessed in 2020, 53 per cent were not entirely accurate, according to a draft document seen by the …

[Anonymous Coward]

Stretching It A Bit, But.....

My biggest bug bear is products that use rechargeable batteries where you cannot change the battery. This ranges from electric toothbrushes, electric shavers or beard trimmers, to small equipment for the office too.

If the EU were so against electronics heading for landfill, then maybe legislate that products can be be maintained even in their simplest form.

[nintendoeats]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Yup. I was just looking at replacing the battery in girlfriendoeats' phone yesterday. Absolute nightmare, requires a heat gun. She has zero desire to replace it, but the battery is no longer viable.

[blackcat]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Those e-cigs that look like your huffing on an old USB flash drive are some of the worst. They are everywhere in London. I'm amazed that the bins are not catching fire.

I firmly believe mining landfills for metals is going to become a big thing soon.

[Peter2]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

I firmly believe mining landfills for metals is going to become a big thing soon.

It couldn't possibly. All the electric waste going in landfill has the little symbol printed on them meaning that you have to pay an extortionate amount for equipment recycling via the WEEE directive rather than throwing it in landfill for free.

[blackcat]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Nice in theory but all the stuff chucked out prior to WEEE regs and the people who still put electrical and metal in the household bin.

[hoola]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

There is loads of stuff that is just chucked into bins, people don't care and rubbish is not sorted.

[that one in the corner]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Big Clive has talked about picking up discarded single-use e-fags from the streets of Glasgow and harvesting the rechargeable lithium batteries from them.

Perfectly rechargeable lithium batteries, in single-use products!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJMj7FtroY

[NeilPost]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Single use eFags ?

Just why ?

[blackcat]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

As someone who has never smoked (ok, once as a kid and nearly chucked) I simply do not understand. You see shops advertising 5 of the things for £20 or so.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

I firmly believe mining landfills for metals is going to become a big thing soon.

In a few million years a new civilisation for sure will find our landfills as their fossil fuel...

[DJV]

Re: In a few million years a new civilisation for sure will find our landfills as their fossil fuel

Yep! https://www.wattpad.com/652804505-wisdom-of-the-ancients

[Dunstan Vavasour]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Given that this will happen within the next 1000 years, all bins are recycling, just different timeframes.

[Alumoi]

Re: Stretching It A Bit, But.....

Are you nuts? If you can repair something then you won't buy a replacement. Think of the missed bribes... erm, political contributions.

Now you'll want replaceable batteries in phones or laptops, you luddite!

[Big_Boomer]

Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

Ahhh yes, the great Greenwash. "Vague, misleading, unfounded, spin,...." or Lies as any sane person calls them.

I know that this article is about the EU but the same holds here in the UK, if not worse. Aren't the ASA supposed to be policing these? I remember when many companies were slapped down for claiming Broadband speeds of "up to" that they hardly ever delivered, and yet every day I see adverts with claims for EV ranges "up to" that they simply cannot deliver in the real world.

[Aladdin Sane]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

Not lies, just...bullshit.

[Alumoi]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

Not lies, just... marketing.

[Great Bu]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

My real pet peeve with EV reporting is when you read a review in a car magazine and they always quote the range as 'up to x miles on a full charge '* and then in the very next sentence tell you it can recharge "from 10-80% in x minutes"** - pick one or the other, you can't tell me the full range from 100-0% charge but then the charge time for just the middle 70%. The use pattern is either run for 70% range and charge quickly or run for all the range and take ages to charge, anything else is cherry picking data to pretend that the inherent limitations are less than they really are.

*Which is also a made up number under ultra-ideal conditions, but so is the petrol car MPG number so.....

** Again, under ultra-ideal conditions with just the right kind of charger of which there is one within 50 miles of you and it is broken.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

adverts with claims for EV ranges "up to" that they simply cannot deliver in the real world.

But they've followed the official EU tests, how can they possibly be wrong?

[blackcat]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

So did VW with their diesel emissions :)

[NATTtrash]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

Isn't the answer, as it also says in the piece:

...while 95 percent of companies consider sustainability a top or high priority, 84 percent said it was ranked lower than commercial objectives in tougher economic times.

[Phones Sheridan]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

"Aren't the ASA supposed to be policing these?"

The ASA have no power other than to write a notice on their website that a company is lying about it's adverts. They cannot force compliance, only Trading Standards can do that, and they have had no funding for non-political enforcement for years.

[NeilPost]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

Why do you thing Jacob Rees-Mogg introduced the EU Retained Law dumping bill ??

Back to 1973 when even Exxon had not figured out Global Warming.

I guess you’ll have Marlboro back in the UK as a Primary sponsor to McLaren F1 too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Lies, Damned Lies, and yet more Marketing Lies

I think it's disguising to expect companies to stop lying

Whatever next? Expecting politicians to tell the truth?

[User McUser]

My favorite vague environmental claim was a label on a bottle of window cleaning fluid that stated "Made from 100% Ocean Bound Plastic."

Not sure if that was supposed to be a claim as to the source of the materials for manufacturing the bottle or an acknowledgement that humans are terrible for the environment...

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Almost all of the plastic in the oceans comes from a handful of rivers in places like China.

You aren't responsible for plastic being in the sea - don't let the BBC et al lie to you that you are.

[blackcat]

It doesn't help that the UK 'recycles' its waste plastic by shipping it overseas. Last I heard it was now going to Turkey and mostly being burnt. The US is trying to 'recycle' plastic by turning it back into monomer feed stock but the energy involved and waste produced is far from good.

The proponents of recycling and the circular economy seem to skip over the energy needed in the transport and recycling processes.

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Well, the extremists are responsible for our end of this.

Plastic isn't currently economically viable to recycle. In order to appear to be "green", we are polluting the oceans and atmosphere.

The actual sensible answer is to bury the plastic in the ground. In the future once the plastic waste is valuable, it can be dug up and re-used. But that doesn't have the right optics so let's ship our plastic to God knows where.

Either way you look at it, it isn't our fault.

[blackcat]

The appearance of green-ness is all that seems to matter. Sad state of affairs.

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Since the carrier bag ban ( because government surely has nothing more important to do than to tell us how we are allowed to transport our groceries ), supermarkets have used more plastic.

The reason being that a bag for life isn't for life - on average it doesn't get used enough times to cover the extra amount of plastic required to make it. I can't remember the actual numbers, but as an example if it takes 10x as much plastic to make but you only use it 9x, you're using more plastic by "going green".

[pdh]

All natural

"All natural" is my favorite, including "made from all-natural ingredients."

The covid virus is all natural. Arsenic is all natural. My poo is all natural. When something is described as "all natural," what exactly is being asserted? What would be an example of something that is *not* made from all-natural ingredients? Even plastics are made of all-natural ingredients.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: All natural

Like "organic" vegetables. True, the inorganic ones are a tad indigestible...

[fidodogbreath]

Re: All natural

Indeed. Also uranium, asbestos, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs...

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: All natural

They're only bad because they've been processed. I mean caesium would simply be something with a healthy, natural glow if only it hadn't been in a nuclear reactor which burped: it's the reactor that made it bad, it's not intrinsic to its like wow peaceful and beautiful nature, maaan, etc.

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: All natural

I'm reminded of blundering across some new age blog when searching for something. It very earnestly spoke of microwaves being "artificial" and "bad radiation" unlike sunlight which was "natural" and "good radiation". Which was quite special. And I'm sure if I tried to cook my meal by leaving it in the sun to warm up I'd end up with it being seasoned by other natural goodness like natural diseases and natural bluebottle secretions.

[fidodogbreath]

Suggested headline

Half of environmental claims about products are full of crap, says EU

Did they expect environmental claims to be different from all the other marketing bullshit?

[Filippo]

Only half?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cost offset

Greenwashing... The scourge of the 21st century. More bull than M$, G00gle & Tesla man combined.

They offset the clean up on to the people who bought it, maximising profit. Plastic being particularly bad as a lot is almost impossible to recycle. Not good at a time the world wants to burn less oil and oil producers are looking at alternative markets. Expect more "enviro friendly" made from oil products. (Ineos... How are the "environmentally friendly" 'biodegradable' still made from oil plastic bags?)

Until you give the rubbish eg plastic back to those who created it and make them deal with it they won't stop producing it.

Looking forward to 10-15 years time as the "green" energy, investment fund & VC backed companies bust themselves rather than pay to clean up their solar & wind farms. Same stunt as North Sea oil rigs we pay tax to cleanup today.

What a mess.

[DenTheMan]

Well, would you carbon credit it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Happens to anything you put a "target to achieve" on and make that your sole measure with nothing concrete to back it up. Companies will dream up all sorts of vagaries in order to appear to meet said target. If it's a politically defined target then you can add all sorts of bullshittery into the mix.

I see the same in other areas.

[Tron]

95% of politicians' claims about policies are full of crap, says Tron.

Can we have a directive on honesty in politics? With compensation and jail time?