Disney’s quiet revolution, space elevator fun, sticky 3M

A collection of climate stories mostly

Brands behaving badly

Brands that don’t care enough, if at all

3M — a masterclass in greenwash packaging

Courtesy of N.C.Hawkins picture and story.

A freelance writer in the US, N.C. Hawkins, wrote an extremely insightful piece recently on the lengths that manufactures go to, to sell their products. Under the microscope was 3M and how their packaging is deliberately misleading. It’s designed to make us feel they care about the environment, helping decision making at the point of sale. There’s only one problem, they’re lying.

The brown cardboard looks recycled but it’s not. The synthetic plastic cartridge is exactly the same as their regular sellotape.

A big and small bright green leaf boldly stand out against the dull background, an assertion that it’s made with plant-based materials, apart from a tiny asterisk or caveat. On the reverse they inform in similarly tiny letters, made from 53% plant-based material.

Which also means that nearly 50% of this product is still synthetic plastic.