A LESSON IN CRITICAL THINKING
Reporting from Vancouver, British Columbia
July 20, 2008

Last week I met with a broker of ecological products. I’m always interested in seeing what’s new in the marketplace, so I agreed to meet with her. Usually I come away from such meetings disappointed, and this was no exception. But it was such a good lesson in critical thinking, I decided to share it with you.

The broker introduced me to two products: the E-cloth (a microfiber cleaning cloth), and Soapnuts (an honest-to-goodness real fruit, from the earth, not a laboratory). I like the idea of soapnuts, a natural detergent used in India for centuries. They work as laundry soap as well as dishwasher soap and in a bucket of water for general cleaning. And the packaging is great—recycled cardboard printed with soy inks. But the E-cloth is another story altogether. Here’s why.

The E-cloth is marketed as “green” because (according to its advertising) it cleans all hard surfaces—stainless steel, worktops, glass, chrome, granite, wood—simply with water, thus eliminating chemical cleaners. I received a complimentary E-cloth and tried it. It works on the superficial cleaning I’ve tried thus far, and will probably clean the tough stuff, too; but I’m not sold on its “green-ness.” Why? It’s made of plastic through and through. Not recycled plastic, either. Virgin plastic.

I hate plastic. It’s bad for the environment cradle to grave, and cradle to cradle. People living near plastic manufacturing plants cope with polluted air and water, and it takes years for plastic to biodegrade, if at all. It’s not worth it.

Given the fact I actually like how this product works, I might be open to recommending it if it were made from recycled plastic, but it’s not. And touting the product as green because you don’t need to use chemical cleaners is a cop-out. There are many plant-based cleaners in the marketplace today that work extremely well. Some cleaners may also disinfect and rid surfaces of bacteria, which plain water does not. If you don’t want to spend money on commercial green cleaners, it’s easy making your own from simple ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard. Saying the E-cloth is green is a real stretch of the imagination.

Still, people believe it. I saw them buying up E-cloths by the bag-full at EP!C, Vancouver’s sustainable living expo in April. That’s why this is such a good lesson in critical thinking. Don’t take someone’s word for it when they say a product is green. Ask questions, like what is it made of? Does it biodegrade? If so, how long does it take? More than a year is too long.

Do your own research. It doesn’t take a lot of digging to learn that plastic, in all its forms, is not sustainable. And what is the definition of green? It’s one word: Sustainable--actions and products that meet current needs without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

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