November 26th, 2007
Which brings us to the bottom line: Where we shop. Most of those environmentally sensitive brands are available in niche stores or at Whole Foods, a big chain, but not everyone’s default grocery stop.
Big box stores, like Target and Wal-Mart, are not, for the most part, offering such alternative brands. Both companies have launched multi-pronged, promising environmental efforts and they sell millions of dollars worth of paper goods.
But so far, they aren’t stocking recycled paper products (with the exception of Kleenex Naturals), at least not in our neighborhood.
We took our NRDC shopping list of recycled “brands to buy” to the local Target and strolled Aisle 10. We saw all the big brands you’ve heard about in ads and commercials, Bounty, Brawny, Viva (with its ironic jingle “Soak Up Life”), Charmin, Scott, Cottonelle. None of these brands list any recycled content, nor do any get the FSC stamp of approval, and none are listed as earth-friendly on the NRDC guide.
We did find Seventh Generation, an eco-friendly brand based in Vermont, one aisle over. It was represented by a single lonely bottle of dish soap. One might say there was lots of Joy in that aisle, but not a lot hope.
We drove across the street to our brand new, “greener” Wal-Mart with its cool skylights and energy-efficient, sensor-lit refrigerator cases. Wal-Mart, according to Greenpeace, sells about 18 percent of K-C’s total products.
Here’s what we found: Towering stacks of Charmin, Kleenex, Quilted Northern, Scott, Bounty, Brawny, Mardi Gras, Sparkle and Viva. Some dyed. Some bleached. None recycled. You get the picture: “Soak Up Life!”
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