Beyond recycling

The truth about "green" products.

Photographs: Pexels

Text: Natalia E.L. Madsen

Most consumers want to do the right thing and, all other things being equal, they will choose sustainable products if they can. In short, sustainability sells. As a result, companies will work hard to find ways to market themselves or their products as “sustainable”, even when they have no evidence to support those claims - this is known as greenwashing.

You have surely seen it: ‘recycled’, ‘sustainable’, ‘eco-friendly’... all these terms and more are used to lure you into believing that the product you’re buying is somehow good for the environment. Let me make it a little black-and-white: no product we buy will ever be good for the environment. The most we can hope for is buying something that isn’t as bad as the alternatives out there.

The “greenest” product is the one you don’t buy

When talking about R-strategies for sustainability or circular economy, most people immediately think of the classics: Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle. Those are all great, but let’s focus for a moment on the often-forgotten number one on the list: Refuse.

Say no. To packaging, to ‘free stuff’, or to specific companies or products. Use the power of ‘no’ to send a strong signal to the market. Companies invest millions upon millions to manipulate you into buying their things, into creating a need that isn’t truly there, but the choice is ultimately yours.

Do you need to own that item you’re looking at, or would it be enough to borrow or rent it? Can you repair or repurpose that product you’re about to dispose of?

Are you able to better care for and mend the clothes you already own, so you can wear them for longer?

With freedom of choice comes the responsibility to do so wisely

When buying, choose things that are made to last (and be repaired)

I haven’t bought a phone in many years - I’ve been lucky enough to take over someone’s perfectly-working ‘old’ phone when they upgrade. If I had to buy a phone today, however, it would probably be a Fairphone.

Fairphone is one of the few companies I’ve seen that encourages you to choose repairing over replacing. Not only that, their products are designed so you can repair them yourself, and they provide both spare parts and thorough repair guides. Battery, screen… “just repair it yourself and hold onto it for longer”. Goodbye planned obsolescence - hello, extended lifetime.

They share what they know, do what they say, and challenge industry practices, proving that electronics can be made more sustainably. What’s not to like?

"Companies invest millions upon millions to manipulate you into buying their things, into creating a need that isn’t truly there, but the choice is ultimately yours."

Recycling won’t save the world

I have eight different waste fractions at home, and no idea how much of it actually gets recycled. So many people are using so much energy deciphering where to throw out every single thing - it barely leaves space to think about anything else. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to minimise the amount of waste we produce. However, somewhere in that process, we seem to forget the main driver for waste and environmental degradation: overconsumption.

Recycling uses energy and creates carbon emissions. Worse, it can further encourage the current “take-make-use-dispose” mindset rather than shifting towards more sustainable practices, such as those based on sufficiency.

Don’t let them fool you: a product that is designed for planned obsolescence (purposefully made to be disposed of and replaced after some time) will never be ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ - regardless of how much recycled material it contains.

An example of greenwashing: Zalando’s “sustainable” labelling.

For years, the fashion platform Zalando displayed misleading sustainability flags and icons next to products on its site, allowing customers to filter for “sustainable” products in their searches. At the same time, factual information on what exactly made such products sustainable was impossible to find.

That’s why, in 2021, the Danish Consumer Council, together with anti-greenwashing specialist Tanja Gotthardsen, reported Zalando to Forbrugerombudsmanden (the Consumer’s Ombudsman) for greenwashing. After a thorough investigation involving, among others, the European Commission, Zalando committed in 2024 to remove misleading sustainability flags and icons from its platform.

Zalando is only one of many examples of companies trying to profit from unfounded sustainability claims. Even the ultra-fast fashion giant SHEIN writes on their website that they can “accelerate our journey towards a sustainable future accessible to all”. A company that, according to a Greenpeace investigation and report from 2022, “has a business model based on hazardous chemicals and environmental destruction”. The same SHEIN that in 2023 released up to 10.000 new designs per day, landfills most of their returned products and whose employees consistently work 80 hours/week with one free day per month.

It is clear that most businesses want to leverage sustainability for profit, but you have the power to decide how you consume and which companies you choose to support with your purchases. We need to buy a lot less, but what little we buy must be done intentionally, making a conscious decision about the kind of future our choices are contributing to building.