3 simple tips to know if a product is green

In our personal life we can easily adopt green living because everything remains under our control. We can control indoor pollution by putting exhaust in kitchen at right place, contribute less in air pollution by using vehicle lesser, we try to reduce garbage pollution by reusing and recycling the rubbish as much as we can. But on commercial side of our life we don’t have much control to remain go green because the things we buy from the market may be environment friendly are not. Here are 3 tips to know if a product is green or not.

Green seal

This is the most authenticate sign to check if the product you are buying is green or not. A green product means:

• That is made from recycled stuff
• In its manufacturing environmental care is fully done
• No any hazardous material is used in its manufacturing
• Its wrapper, packing and other packaging stuff is biodegradable
• Its raw material does not cause damage to our natural resources like cutting of trees

To ensure above five green features in products you have to check if a green seal is stamped over the packet of the product. Green seal is usually an authorization issued by environmental protection agency or its authorized institution in your country that confirms that the product you are buying is environment friendly. To verify is the green seal genuine you have to check it at the website of the EPA or its authorized institution of your country.

Is its manufacturer green?

If there is no green seal on the packaging of a product there is another way to check if it is green. Just see which is the manufacturer of that product? If the manufacturer is a responsible company of your country that is highly reputed in its quality and standard it means it is environment friendly. It also means that the product it makes must also be green. But here you have to check very carefully the environment friendliness of the manufacturer of the product you want to buy. You should also visit the website of the manufacturer and visit its section of corporate social responsibility to check how much it addresses the environmental aspect of the product.

How is the packaging of a product?

If the packaging of the product is biodegradable that may be degraded; it means it is not very much adverse to environment. Many products are wrapped in non-biodegradable plastic that is quite harmful for the environment. You can check this feature by measuring the thickness of the plastic. If it is not very thick it means it is harmful and not environment friendly. But preferably you should avoid all products that are wrapped in any type of plastic because plastic pollution can never be removed from the earth and it remains forever. So its avoidance is its only possible solution.

Conclusion

These three tips can work well in advanced countries where environmental standards are applied in industrial operations. However, in least developed countries there is no concept of green seal as yet. Moreover, majority of the factories don’t comply environmental laws that is why there is no question of checking if a manufacturer is green or not. There is no such data available in less advanced countries that can tell about the environment friendliness of a factory. Thirdly in poor countries all the products are offered in plastic bags at retail level and there is no strict check over it. Therefore, you cannot assess if a product is green on the basis of its packaging because plastic material is openly used in such countries for packing the products.