In response to the global problems of the 21st century, it is becoming increasingly trendy to be environmentally friendly. Goliath-like, but laws are also starting to impose environmental regulations. And companies are trying to meet social expectations. This is how various eco-friendly campaigns and labels were born. And most people feel relieved when buying such products because they think they are protecting the planet. But how much? Is this enough? Can we really sit back and relax?
What can eco-friendly labels cover?
There are many aspects that can make a product environmentally friendly. It could be because its raw materials are natural, but do not contain plants grown at the cost of clearing rainforests. Or because they are made locally, so they do not travel halfway around the world. Or the manufacturer uses renewable energy during production, or there is no waste, or the waste is recyclable or not environmentally harmful. Or there is no or minimal use of drinking water. Or the product is biodegradable, or the packaging is made of recycled materials, and we could list more. The ideal would be if all of the raw material production, production, finished product, packaging, transportation, and waste processing were environmentally friendly. However, this is very rarely achieved. Companies can boast of smaller or larger partial results.
An example of achieving an environmentally friendly approach
Gucci's creative director announced during the coronavirus pandemic that the fashion for seasonal clothes is over, and from 2020 they will only hold two fashion shows a year instead of the previous four, in order to make their clothes last longer. All this is done in the interest of protecting the environment and a more sustainable future.
Luxury brands have also started to take their first baby steps towards an environmentally friendly approach. How environmentally friendly is Gucci? While the fashion industry produces 150 billion pieces of clothing every year. Among them, Gucci continues to tailor its collections, which are produced with an astonishing amount of water, dyed with toxic chemicals, and made from non-compostable materials. It doesn't matter whether a dress is made from organic cotton or from genetically modified cotton sprayed with insecticides and fungicides, bleached with chlorine, softened with formaldehyde. What matters is the material.
What's behind plant-based products?
Plant-based products are made from plants. And plants have to grow somewhere. Sometimes, we take away the habitat and lives of other species that live with us. Just as oil palm plantations threaten the survival of orangutans, or the extinction of the clouded leopard. But it is not necessarily good if they take up farmland. In our overpopulated world, growing plants to produce cleaning products instead of food seems quite environmentally exploitative. Not only do they require new farmland or the use of existing ones, they also have to be watered profusely, then processed with machines and transported to the manufacturer. Does all this seem environmentally friendly? Yet, plant-based cleaning products are also considered environmentally friendly products, since they meet the environmental requirements based on other criteria, and even have the recycling symbol on their packaging, since the packaging is indeed, but not the product itself. Here you can also find out which packaging is best for recycling .
What's behind recycled products?
Recycled products are not made from new, but from existing raw materials. To stay with the example, it doesn't matter whether you buy clothes made from plant, animal, or synthetic materials at the Gucci brand store, or buy the same Gucci dress at Háda six months later and have it tailored to your figure. The latter will already be a recycled product. The point is that in the case of recycled products, the product itself is made from recycled materials, not just its packaging. Which is more environmentally friendly? The product whose packaging is a recycled PET bottle , while the contents of the bottle were created through environmental pollution? Or the product whose packaging is not only recycled, but also the contents themselves? It doesn't hurt to look up exactly what the recycled label refers to.
CYCLE is the world's first recycled cleaning product
Cycle products are at least 90% recycled. The brand also creates value from waste. It recycles biomass, a by-product of the biological purification of water used by Budapest residents. How? This will be the subject of the next blog article.
How is the only circular cleaner different from other eco-friendly cleaners?
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