Walmart: Green is also the Color of Money

So yesterday was earthday, and I caught the end of a Walmart commercial telling the viewer how shopping at Walmart can be environmentally friendly. It had something to do with a detergent bottle, and the bottle's wide cap sparked a bit of hope in me.

Perhaps the wide cap was to make it easier to refill the bottle. Instead of shipping in individual bottles that will be thrown away or recycled, the consumer will buy one bottle for a lifetime and refill the detergent at the store. Remember "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" means that reusing something is better than recycling, as recycle takes energy, and frequently results in inferior materials (known as downcycling).

The reality is, however, that the detergent is more powerful, meaning you need less detergent. So instead of buying a bunch of large bottles, you buy the same amount of smaller bottles and are able to wash the same amount of clothes with a little less packaging. A step in the right direction, but not a very big one.

A better solution would be to put the more powerful detergent in the same large bottles, as with a slight increase in packaging (surface area) you can greatly increase the amount of product (volume). An even better solution would be to eliminate liquid detergents, and only ship dry detergents. With liquid detergents you're paying to have water shipped, which your washing machine already provides (Cradle to Cradle, page 142). Also the extra weight means more CO2 is emitted in transport. Of course the best solution would be reusable containers, following the same reasoning Walmart gives for using cloth bags.

Of course, as a business, Walmarts main focus is on selling products, not saving the environment. They suggest that if every Walmart customer bought a pair of organic pajama pants it would reduce the amount of pesticides used. The effect that isn't mentioned is it would generate a lot of revenue for Walmart. Of course the better option would be for every Walmart customer to use the pair of pajama pants they already own, and if they Need to buy a new pair, to buy organic.

In all likelihood, what Walmart is really doing is greenwashing their image; making people think they are helping the environment, while only doing minimal measures to improve their image so they can increase revenue. In fact, the 10 things you can do to save money and make a difference fall into two categories: 1. doing something different at home (no burden on Walmart), 2. buying something from Walmart that they were probably going to sell anyway. The good news is it seems that when a company greenwashes their image, that eventually people find out where they are falling short, and pressure forces them to actually improve their policies. Though your average Walmart shopper isn't very concerned with social justice issues, and probably won't notice if they fall short on their environmentally friendly claims.


Now a real show of concern by Walmart would be to take on the burden of a recycling program for all those CFLs they are going to sell.