The worst greenwasher last week was Earth Day herself. It’s tough to say who got more media play on her international holiday – naughty corporate sponsors or the bloggers who outed them.

Spin Cycle

Rainforest Action Network’s Greenwash of the Week video featured a laundry list of major Earth Day sponsors who are among the worst eco-offenders on the planet. From Cargill, the huge agribusiness concern that is wiping out the Indonesian rainforest to produce palm oil, to Chevron, one of the biggest polluters in California.

Run for Your Life

Wall Street Cheat Sheet gave its award for the most obscene Earth Day greenwash to Dow Chemical Company, nuclear plutonium polluters and sole suppliers of napalm during the Vietnam war. Dow was the platinum sponsor of Live Earth’s “Run for Water” event at 193 locations in 45 countries. Fortunately, the irony wasn’t lost on Brooklyn event protesters, who dressed as grim reapers while others faked keeling over dead.

Watered Down

Topping Inhabitat‘s “Top Five Dumbest Greenwashed “˜Earth Day’ Gimmicks” list were the new Poland Springs “eco-shaped water bottles,” which claim to use an average of 30 percent less plastic than other water bottles the same size. That means Poland Springs uses three and a half liters of water – rather than five – just to make one half-liter plastic bottle. So it’s only 70 percent evil?

Click and Cry

On Earth Day, beautiful scenes of green fields, wind generators and rainbows were projected onto the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, while Israeli tanks and bulldozers destroyed a Palestinian family’s fields of wheat, rye and lentils for no apparent reason. [via Media Monitors Network]

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment in Liz Barrett’s news column, Green Scene, covering what’s fascinating in green weekly.

Image: Stella Blu

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Three sacred cows from the eco-food world – sustainable packaging, compostable coffee cups and veggie burgers – have recently landed on alert lists.

Sound storm

When Frito-Lay’s research and development chief Mike Zbuchalski signed off on the totally compostable Sun Chips bag, he obviously didn’t realize its crunchy sound effects would inspire dozens of snarky YouTube videos (plus warnings of hearing loss) a few weeks after it hit the market. Our friends at the Greenwash Brigade suggest composting the bags with a large, loud tractor.

Bad chemistry

Another packaging faux pas involves the Dixie PerfecTouch insulated cup. Georgia Pacific touts it as “commercially compostable,” but according to the Greenwashing blog, the cup is made of non-compostable polyethylene and has not passed the necessary tests to be certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute – a must for the compostabilty claim. Two words for GP packaging prez Terry Cinotte: false advertising.

Mind-blowing meals

Turns out most veggie burgers are not a kinder, gentler companion for fries. Most of them are made with the neurotoxin hexane, which is also an EPA-registered air pollutant according to Mother Jones. Nobody knows for sure if the hexane residue in the patties is enough to cause nervous system disorders like those suffered by workers exposed to it in soy processing plants. Among the culprit brands is Amy’s Kitchen; good thing Amy Berliner’s favorite food is pizza.

Click and cry

The European Union stamped its eco-label seal of approval on two brands of copy paper made from timber logged from a rapidly disappearing Sumatran rainforest.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment in Liz Barrett’s news column, Green Scene, covering what’s fascinating in green weekly.

Image: ingridtaylar

The post Green Scene: Noise Polluting Chips, Toxic Cups & Neurotoxic Veggie Burgers appeared first on EcoSalon.