I got a flyer in the mail the other day from Lowe's. "EARTH DAY SAVINGS AT LOWE'S" was proudly emblazoned across the top with a picture of an woman with immaculate garden gloves holding a plant.
It starts off pretty well on page 1 ("Make Every Day... EARTH DAY!"), with a coupon/ad for an "Eco" sprinkler and hose nozzle "designed to save water and money". Page 2 ("Innovative, Ergonomic, Earth Friendly"), has a Reel mower and a coupon for lawn and garden products. Still pretty good. Then it starts to go downhill ("Never Use a Broom Outside Again"), with a cordless sweeper that looks like a mini leaf blower and promises to clear your patio and sidewalk with "less effort than sweeping with a push broom". Next, there are 7 pages of various weed and insect killers ("Inspired By Nature, Enhanced By Science"), including Spectracide; "Kills the toughest weed types" "Specialty formulas designed to meet all of your lawn weed needs" "Won't harm lawns when used as directed". I had to laugh when I flipped to that one. At least they aren't trying to say that it's environmentally responsible. I do think it's an interesting choice for an Earth Day ad though, especially since the product website states the following instructions for disposal;
If partly filled: Call you local solid waste agency or 1-800-CLEANUP for disposal instructions. Never place unused product down any indoor or outdoor drain.
So spray it all over your lawn, but don't even think about pouring it into a drain. Having a green lawn counts as being "green", right?
Want to read more?
Grist loves Earth Day too
Reusable Bags Blog has been talking about cheap reusables and garbage giveaways
Treehugger's Best of Green 2010 awards
Watch The Story of Bottled Water
2 comments:
Well said! Seems like everyone wants to jump on the "Earth Day" bandwagon but some just aren't playing the right tune. At least there is some effort to go in the right direction. The more we demand REAL Earth-friendly products, the more will become available... to be advertised only in Earth Day specials, lol.
Good find, Karma! This kind of stuff kills me - kind of like the polycarbonate giveaway bottles my local pharmacy keeps trying to force on me "in honor of earth day." Umm...no thanks!
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