Green Police: Green products still making questionable claims

The good news is that there are a lot more environmentally friendly products on the market (73% more than 2009), and that greenwashing has declined. The bad news is that nearly all green products on the market (more than 95%) commit at least one of the "Seven Sins of Greenwashing."

The seven sins list and the annual survey are produced by TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company associated with the Underwriters Laboratory. Scott McDougall, the group's president, sees a small increase in the percentage of "sin free" products (from 2% to 4.5% of the 5,296 products examined in the U.S. and Canada) as "early evidence of a positive and long-lasting trend." Home and family products showed a definite uptick in green reliability.