When people at the supermarket walk past the cheaply-priced mass-market stuff and head for the expensive products labeled “green”, they feel good about themselves. They’re doing more than the average Joe would for the planet, and it’s a nice feeling. But what if those labels that set them apart as Organic or Natural or Green aren’t really that trustworthy? There’s a word they use for it in the biz – they call it a greenwashing. And that’s a term that probably needs no explaining.

There is practically no green product out there that’s completely free of wrongdoing; but when compared with one another, the car companies and the oil, gas and electricity companies are just about the sneakiest in their green labeling. It happens in any recession. Businesses are desperate to do something about the low sales they experience; if they are lucky enough to find a bandwagon to jump on, they’re only too happy to. This time around, they’ve found solace in the attraction green products have in the marketplace. Where else would they find an idea at this time for a way to make customers pay 25% more?

The FTC has had some pretty strict laws in place for ages for what products companies are allowed to jump up and scream “green” about. It is just that the FTC has been shorthanded for quite a while and haven’t really get their eye on the ball as far as enforcement is been concerned. Right about now though, they’re beginning to catch up. Not only will they now be enforcing what laws they have, they are going to establish new definitions for what kind of green products get to call themselves Carbon Neutral or Sustainable.

Those rules when they come out aren’t exactly going to save the world; but they’ll be better than what we have right now. Until then, here’s what you need to know to take green products that will really save the earth for the extra cash you put down for them.

Say that you are looking for paper plates that are made of recycled material. You see a package that says it’s made from recycled material. That is a very good thing; only, it can’t be as good as the package next over that says something to the effect that it is Postconsumer Recycled, all of it. The FTC will make sure that no one can just say “recycled” anymore. What about advertising slogans such as non-toxic or cruelty free though? You can be pretty sure that when there is no standard definition for these terms, they don’t mean to the manufacturers what they mean to you.

In the end, the best green products out there aren’t green in any traditional sense of the term. Wal-Mart for instance has told its suppliers that it will only stock super-concentrated liquid soap. This will make sure that the less weight has to be packed in bottles and transported all across the country. This saves in using fewer plastic bottles manufactured, and less weight transported. And who would you believe it – that this would save the earth a lot more than any nice “organically manufactured” environmentally friendly green soap would. And this isn’t something that they could put on the bottle.

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