how to buy a truly environmentally friendly product?

Most packaging seems to us to be concerned with respect for the environment. It’s up to the packaging to boast the most eco-friendly “label”! But watch out for scams. And there are many of them!

What a headache! We could spend hours looking at the packaging, from the cosmetics section to cleaning products to clothing stores. And there is something: hundreds of environmental labels in France, which are not all equal. Not to mention the creativity of the brands, to sell us dreams.

The greenwashing technique consists of encouraging the consumer to buy a product, making them believe that it is virtuous for the environment – and for their health, often – when it is not. not the case. An advertisement with mountain landscapes, green packaging, a cream presented as “natural”, simply because it contains a little honey. We also see baby bottles labeled “without bisphenol A”, which gives a particularly healthy image to the product, even though the substance has been banned in the manufacture of baby bottles for more than 10 years anyway! All these are real marketing arguments but, often, false ecological promises.

First of all, and this is an effort, we should avoid relying on the appearance of the packaging. We can look at the labels, but as they really do not all have the same value, we suggest you focus on those which are official, such as the European Ecolabel; you know, it’s this flower logo, whose petals represent the 12 European stars. This, for example, guarantees that environmental criteria cover the entire life cycle of the product. And apart from this label, the ideal, it takes a little time, is to look at the composition and compare the products. If you have difficulty finding your way between the different labels, we advise you to take a look at the Ademe website, Agir pour la Transition, which has scrutinized 100 of them and helps you identify those which are relevant, product by product (maintenance, hygiene, furniture, DIY, etc.). For household appliances, on the label, you can pay attention to two pieces of data: the energy label, and the repairability index, which translates into a score out of 10 indicating that a product is more or less repairable and therefore, more or less waste generating.