¶ … puzzling or mysterious subject from a field of study or from an interest you have explored. Write an extended definition that explains this mystery for your readers. As appropriate, include information about its characteristics, parts, history, possible causes, effects, solutions, benefits, or dangers. On some products, we see labels tagged with the logo EcoLogo and Green Seal. Some people do not know what they stand for or why they are necessary. The following essay is an explanation of these labels and the reason for their existence.

Both labels, each produced by different companies, were issued as control against a practice called Greenwashing. Greenwashing is the practice of managers calling their brands / products 'natural', 'earth-friendly', 'environmental', 'green', 'organic', or the like -- when they may not, necessarily, be so. Some products have even branded themselves with empty semantics such as being 'biodegradable' or 'natural' (consider: 'natural' potato chips and 'natural' cereal). In short, some of the advertising is simply meaningless nonsense. Other claims are false.

In 2009, ABC News (Leamy, 2009) quoted the Federal Trade Commission which had complained about four types of material that had been misleadingly marketed as natural bamboo, whilst the material used in the textiles was actually rayon. The duplicity inherent in this marketing is an example of "Greenwashing" -- branding products or items to be environmentally friendly when they are not.

TerraChoice, a Canadian company that tests and certifies...

Exaggerating elements that had originally been removed from the product.
Some variables sometimes have to be extracted (legal or otherwise) from the product. The product is the way it is because of necessary or obligatory removal of the variables. The company, nonetheless, emphasizes the alleged superiority of the product by including the variables that have had to be removed as causative to consequent improvement and health of the product. A particular shaving cream, for instance, had its label emphasize the extraction of chlorofluorocarbons. Chlorofluorocarbons, however, had actually been banned as far back as 1978 due to its harmful qualities. The element was illegal and dangerous. Customers, ignorant of the psychobabble of chemistry, were unaware of the fact and took its inclusion on the label as pointing to the superiority of the product.

1. Failing to provide proof.

The chasing arrows logo indicates that the product has been recycled but the symbol is often used without the necessary details. Details that the customer should be provided with would include source of the recycled content and amount of the product / item that was actually recycled.

1. Environmental trade-offs.

Some manufactured waters are marketed as eco-friendly because of their packaging or other variables that went into producing them. Some of these products may actually be eco-friendly, but consumers overlook concealed trade-offs such…