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On the one-year anniversary of the launch of Green Works – a product line that now include eight different cleaners, all made with plant-based ingredients – Clorox has announced its new Green Works cleaning wipes.
The wipes are made with 100 percent cellulose fibers harvested from forests that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council or Program for the Endorsement of Forestry Certification. Their packaging – HDPE, or #2 plastic - contains at least 25 percent post-consumer recycled content.
They are also biodegradable, but only in compost conditions, based on the ASTM Standard 5338 for biodegradability.
Clorox also said that is it giving the Sierra Club $470,000 as part of the relationship for the product line. When Green Works was first announced, the Sierra Club endorsed the product, letting the cleaners carry its logo for, at the time, an undisclosed amount. The contribution is based on sales of Green Works products from April to December 2008.
Other natural wipes that have already been on the market include Method’s 100 percent bamboo wipes, first introduced in April 2007.
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What exactly does ASTM Standard 5338 for biodegradability mean?
After reading this article, I am happy to hear that Clorox is working to create more environmentally responsible products. However, what exactly is this test ASTM...? It states that the wipes are only biodegrable in compost conditions. After reading what that exactly is in accordance with ASTM, I seem to feel as if that doesn't actually mean that what it is degrading into is something good for the earth. Is this greenwashing? I feel as if there is something not quite 100% truthful about the GreenWorks campaign. Any thoughts?
Green Works wipes are NOT biodegradable in the real sense
I've always been a devotee of Sierra Club and worried a tad when they "endorsed" the Green Works line of products by Clorox in 2008. Now I am truly alarmed.
Clorox (and by endorsement, Sierra Club) is misleading the consumer by claiming that their newest Green Works wipes are biodegradable. As I have warned my readers in a monthly newspaper column in Virginia,
These wipes are only compostable and biodegradable in "industrial composting facilities." Calls to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality confirmed that there are none in Virginia. There are few elsewhere in the US. The low oxygen concentration and drop in temperature in landfills will not allow them to biodegrade in a landfill—or in backyard compost piles.
The Federal Trade Commission advertising guidelines state that “When you see a "compostable" claim on a product or package, it means the manufacturer should have made sure the material can be safely composted in home compost piles.” Biodegradable claims should also fit within those parameters since the public will assume it.
Shame on Sierra and Clorox for hoodwinking the public.
I have asked them to reconsider theirendorsement which will now be even more difficult. $470,000 is a substantial "contribution." It could now easily be perceived as "payoff."