How ambiguous words are often used intentionally to hit your pain points

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and I realised that my understanding of words and phrases (such as ‘green’, ‘eco friendly’ and ‘healthy living’) were completely different to hers; they are clearly ambiguous words – or, at least, they have ambiguous meanings. There is no official definition for these phrases. This was re-confirmed when I was in the process of creating a group on social media. I was going to use ‘healthy living’ in the title but when I went on to explain what I was going to include in the group, somebody came back to me and said they were not expecting that. Their understanding of ‘healthy living’ had to do with health and fitness. My understanding of healthy living is the reduction of chemicals, using products that are as natural as possible, and reducing carbon footprint.

Off to a tee…

Recently I was at a market selling my products and I got talking to the stall holder next to me who was selling hanging plant pot-holders knitted from recycled t-shirts. They were beautiful and I ended up buying one for my mum. But my understanding of “recycled” is a product has been used for its purpose and then can be reused for something else. But this was not the case in this instance. You cannot recycle cotton t-shirts once they have been made.

It would probably cost too much in money and environmental damage to make them into something else. What had actually happened was that she was using the leftover pieces of t-shirt material (i.e. the waste) which would have otherwise been thrown away to landfill. In this example, there’s no major misunderstanding, as the material is being reused rather than thrown away. The confusion was my understanding of the description.

It’s all in the spin…

With this in mind, some companies use this to their advantage. They will describe a product or a service as green or eco-friendly. They are relying on your interpretation of the description rather than theirs! Some of the products I sell are sold to me as ‘recycled leather’, for example. I do not sell under this title, as I think this is misleading. I describe this as “salvaged from scrap leather from the huge waste of….” which I think is a far better explanation as it is more precise.

This leads to the whole issue of greenwashing. The Cambridge Dictionary describes greenwashing as: ”behaviour or activities that make people believe that a company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is“.

For example,companies use the word “green” when they want to make something appear eco-friendly, even though it is very unlikely that it is.

Being clear

This is a challenging problem to try and overcome. I can only recommend that you really investigate any company or the product if it is new or if they make specific claims. There are some companies which sell you the idea of convenience, i.e. getting regular monthly deliveries, but their products may not be as eco-friendly as you think (as your definition is going to be different to theirs).

As I’ve said before, it’s a minefield, and I will write more about greenwashing another time in a future blog. I certainly don’t think it’s ethical, which I believe still matters.

Thank you very much for reading. Until next time……