Cute Packaging, Dirty Truth: The Greenwashing Trap 🤥

July 2025

Okay bestie, let’s talk. What’s the point of being a conscious consumer if the choices you're given are already filtered through lies? You deserve to know what you're actually supporting whether it's the planet, plastic, or pure PR stunts.

Because sometimes, brands want you to think you’re saving the planet one bamboo toothbrush at a time but plot twist: it's just a smoke screen. Enter: greenwashing, aka Green Sheen if she’s feeling fancy. 

And this isn't new. Deception has been around since forever. Companies love to throw words like “clean,” “natural,” or “green” on their packaging without really doing anything different. It’s all about selling the look, not the impact.

The term greenwashing was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld. During a visit to Fiji in 1983, he noticed something unsettling: a hotel urged guests to reuse towels, claiming it was part of an environmental initiative. But just beyond the folded linens and friendly signs, the hotel was expanding—bulldozing surrounding land and disrupting the local ecosystem. What seemed like a green gesture was a cost-cutting scheme dressed in eco-concern. Westerveld gave this hypocrisy a name: greenwashing.

Since then, the trend has only grown. Today, greenwashing comes in slicker packaging and with shinier logos. A recent example of this is TotalEnergies, which marketed its natural gas as a “green” transition fuel while continuing massive investments in fossil fuel infrastructure. In Australia, Energy Australia was taken to court for falsely claiming its gas and electricity plans were carbon-neutral. And in the U.S., Charmin is facing a class-action lawsuit for misleading consumers about the sustainability of its toilet paper, despite sourcing from the carbon-rich boreal forests.

September 2023: Greenpeace France activists protest against the arrival of the TotalEnergies Liquefied Natural Gas

These are not isolated cases. From fast fashion brands like H&M to sugar companies marketing “climate-conscious” products while polluting low-income communities, greenwashing has become a polished tool of public deception. The result? Consumers with good intentions often unknowingly support harmful industries, and genuine environmental solutions are often overshadowed by a sea of empty slogans.

The danger of greenwashing isn't just consumer confusion—it's delay in action, delay in justice, and delay in the systemic change needed to address climate breakdown. It allows powerful companies to perform sustainability while continuing business as usual. Worse still, it diverts attention from communities, especially Indigenous peoples, frontline environmental defenders, and youth, who are leading authentic climate action, often without media coverage or financial support.

So as we continue to peel back the layers of greenwashing and reflect on what real sustainability looks like, let’s pause.

Here’s a poetic reflection on the illusion of eco-perfection and the quiet harm it causes. Because the Earth is not a brand. It’s a home. And it’s time we treated it that way.

Green Lies: The Illusion of Eco-Friendly

By: Olexa Sarah Oleyo Samuel Alfonso

A lie is a poison sweetened for sale 

Brewed with profit when seasons are pale 

It seeps through roots, corrupts the rain, 

Draped in green to mask the pain. 

It hums of rivers, breath, and skies 

But behind its smile, the planet cries.

It grows in the cracks of truth and doubt,

 A pretty lie with roots stretched out. 

"Eco" stamped on plastic dreams, 

While rivers choke and forests scream.

Strip the green off empty claims,

 Let forests speak, not corporate names. 

The Earth does not need branded grace, 

But honesty—and breathing space. 

So if a label speaks of skies, 

Ask what truth behind it lies.