Your ocean-friendly product might be misleading consumers. So marketer, what are you going to do about it? In this article, learn what a ‘blue claim’ is and its contribution to ‘oceanwashing’. You will walkway with concrete examples of ‘oceanwashing’ terms to eliminate from your marketing campaigns.
The ocean plastic problem
The new backpack or water bottle made of ocean plastic, plastic fished out of the ocean, that you recently purchased might not be as ocean-positive as you think. But what is the problem that ‘ocean-friendly’ brands are trying to solve?
It’s estimated that 50 to 75 trillion pieces of plastic are in our oceans. Plastic enters the oceans in a variety of different ways including illegal dumping, inefficient recycling programs, and discarded fishing nets, just to name a few common methods.
Plastic takes between 500 to 1,000 years to degrade, and much of it just breaks down into microplastics, a tiny particle of plastic less than five millimeters in length. These microplastics are already found in our bodies, food, and even placentas. They impact marine life and ecosystems, causing suffocation, starvation, and physical injuries.
How does plastic contribute to climate change? Plastic is a petroleum-based product, and the fossil fuels used in manufacturing it emit harmful carbon dioxide that warms our planet. At the end of a plastic product’s life, if it’s incinerated, more harmful pollutants such as carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere, increasing emissions and contributing to global warming.
What are blue claims?
A blue claim, similar to a green claim, is a statement or marketing message made by a brand, product, or service about its environmental benefits for our oceans.
Such a claim can be associated with the production, packaging, and distribution of a product, or with how that product is used, consumed, or disposed of at the end of its life.
A misleading claim isn’t only a phrase or words. These claims can appear in packaging, advertising materials, and in other forms of marketing like symbols, logos, graphics, video, colors, and product brand names.
Environmental claims should always have substantial evidence backing them up. An ethical marketing practice would be to label your product or service with an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification. Learn more – here – in my blog post on ethical ecolabels.
In this YouTube video, I take a deep-dive into greenwashing and why you should care as a marketer about this topic.
What is oceanwashing?
Oceanwashing is a misleading or false claim or statement about a product’s or service’s environmental benefits to the oceans.
It’s a category of greenwashing that specifically spotlights how these claims harm ocean conservation efforts and mislead consumers trying to specifically choose products that benefit the oceans.
Marketers stop unsubstantiated claims
When marketers make unsubstantiated claims about the sustainability of their products or services, it spreads misinformation and misleads members of the public who want to make better and more informed purchasing decisions.
It’s still a common reality that sustainable products are niche, and the average consumer isn’t making sustainable purchases. Many of these products are sold at a premium, leading consumers to choose more affordable, less planet-friendly options.
Also, the few consumers that choose eco-friendly products for their morals and the better of the planet are misled into buying purchases that are not. A survey conducted in the United States concluded that two-thirds of adults are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products. If you’re an environmentally-conscious individual, wouldn’t you want that premium to actually go to a ‘for good’ product?
Sadly, many claimed products are not what they say they are.
Marketing’s contribution to oceanwashing
Plastics aren’t good for humans, wildlife, or the environment. Therefore, the best course of action is to eliminate plastic consumption, which includes a stop in fossil fuel production.
That’s the best case scenario, and as we continue to advocate for the end of the fossil fuel era, we must acknowledge that brands use environmental claims like ‘made with ocean plastics’ to tap into the growing awareness of ocean conservation.
As people become more empathetic toward our oceans (great!), you will see more ‘oceanwashing’ schemes leading consumers into believing that their newly purchased product is better for the oceans.
If you’re a marketer, or a consumer, these are some common blue claims that lead to ‘oceanwashing’:
- Ocean plastic vs ocean bound plastic vs beach plastic — Currently, there is no certification in existence that will certify that your product is made from plastic that is ocean-bound (plastic found in waterways on its way to the ocean) or direct-ocean plastic (plastics found directly in the ocean). It’s dependent upon the consumer to do the research. Additionally, consumers are led to believe that purchasing products with this label helps to reduce the plastics polluting beaches, waterways, and the oceans. When 12 million tons of plastic are still entering the oceans each year, the misleading claim is that buying the product will ‘clean’ the ocean—an unrealistic claim. The reality is that even the best designed and most well-intentioned products can’t do this.
- Marine biodegradable plastic — This is another common ‘blue claim’ that leads the consumer to believe that the specific product will disappear when it’s in water. These are biodegradable plastics that are believed to degrade in the marine environment over a specific timeframe. However, it doesn’t address the dilemma of single-use plastics and has created a new, linear product that follows the traditional lifecycle of creation to landfill. It also encourages reckless behavior, implying that abandoning these products in the environment wouldn’t be bad for our oceans.
- Recycled plastic — This is a better claim than the others, but it still implies ‘oceanwashing’. Recyclable plastic is plastic that can undergo a recycling process. There are many problems with recycling processes, but recycling is better than landfills or incineration. However, the reality is that all recyclable plastic isn’t being recycled. This claim is creating an alternative image of the true reality. In Europe, only 32.5% of plastic waste is recycled.
As a marketer, either avoid or be ready to back up any of these common ‘blue claims’. It’s an admirable idea to collect plastic from the ocean and recycle it into new products. However, it’s not the most substantial method to combat the global plastic problem. Most ‘blue claims’ are misleading, and take away from the bigger agenda, which is to educate citizens on the harmful effects of plastics and bring about the end of the fossil fuel era.
Lastly, many ocean products are made with PET bottles. PET (or Polyethylene terephthalate) is a healthier, harder, more rigid and stronger plastic to create products with. Typically, PET plastic can be recycled up to two or three times.
But when a PET bottle, for example, is removed from the marine environment and turned into an ocean product like a backpack, you’re removing its ‘circular loop’ opportunity by reducing the bottle’s use from three to only one time use.
This is problematic for two reasons: (1) you’re removing the PET bottle from the recycle where it can be used again and (2) by removing it from the recycle, you’re creating demand for new PET bottles to be created. PET is a petroleum-based product, which new bottles, increase or stantans fossil fuel products. Remove the PET bottle from the marine environment and put the bottle back into the loop to be made into new bottles.
As a marketer, be aware of the ocean plastic problem, but also how your communication of your ‘ocean plastic’ product can be misleading or harmful to the greater problem that we’re trying to solve (i.e. climate change).
Stand up for Big Blue!
Your ocean-friendly product might be misleading consumers. So marketer, what are you going to do about it? In this article, learn what a ‘blue claim’ is and its contribution to ‘oceanwashing’. You will walkway with concrete examples of ‘oceanwashing’ terms to eliminate from your marketing campaigns.
The ocean plastic problem
The new backpack or water bottle made of ocean plastic, plastic fished out of the ocean, that you recently purchased might not be as ocean-positive as you think. But what is the problem that ‘ocean-friendly’ brands are trying to solve?
It’s estimated that 50 to 75 trillion pieces of plastic are in our oceans. Plastic enters the oceans in a variety of different ways including illegal dumping, inefficient recycling programs, and discarded fishing nets, just to name a few common methods.
Plastic takes between 500 to 1,000 years to degrade, and much of it just breaks down into microplastics, a tiny particle of plastic less than five millimeters in length. These microplastics are already found in our bodies, food, and even placentas. They impact marine life and ecosystems, causing suffocation, starvation, and physical injuries.
How does plastic contribute to climate change? Plastic is a petroleum-based product, and the fossil fuels used in manufacturing it emit harmful carbon dioxide that warms our planet. At the end of a plastic product’s life, if it’s incinerated, more harmful pollutants such as carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere, increasing emissions and contributing to global warming.
What are blue claims?
A blue claim, similar to a green claim, is a statement or marketing message made by a brand, product, or service about its environmental benefits for our oceans.
Such a claim can be associated with the production, packaging, and distribution of a product, or with how that product is used, consumed, or disposed of at the end of its life.
A misleading claim isn’t only a phrase or words. These claims can appear in packaging, advertising materials, and in other forms of marketing like symbols, logos, graphics, video, colors, and product brand names.
Environmental claims should always have substantial evidence backing them up. An ethical marketing practice would be to label your product or service with an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification. Learn more – here – in my blog post on ethical ecolabels.
In this YouTube video, I take a deep-dive into greenwashing and why you should care as a marketer about this topic.
What is oceanwashing?
Oceanwashing is a misleading or false claim or statement about a product’s or service’s environmental benefits to the oceans.
It’s a category of greenwashing that specifically spotlights how these claims harm ocean conservation efforts and mislead consumers trying to specifically choose products that benefit the oceans.
Marketers stop unsubstantiated claims
When marketers make unsubstantiated claims about the sustainability of their products or services, it spreads misinformation and misleads members of the public who want to make better and more informed purchasing decisions.
It’s still a common reality that sustainable products are niche, and the average consumer isn’t making sustainable purchases. Many of these products are sold at a premium, leading consumers to choose more affordable, less planet-friendly options.
Also, the few consumers that choose eco-friendly products for their morals and the better of the planet are misled into buying purchases that are not. A survey conducted in the United States concluded that two-thirds of adults are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products. If you’re an environmentally-conscious individual, wouldn’t you want that premium to actually go to a ‘for good’ product?
Sadly, many claimed products are not what they say they are.
Marketing’s contribution to oceanwashing
Plastics aren’t good for humans, wildlife, or the environment. Therefore, the best course of action is to eliminate plastic consumption, which includes a stop in fossil fuel production.
That’s the best case scenario, and as we continue to advocate for the end of the fossil fuel era, we must acknowledge that brands use environmental claims like ‘made with ocean plastics’ to tap into the growing awareness of ocean conservation.
As people become more empathetic toward our oceans (great!), you will see more ‘oceanwashing’ schemes leading consumers into believing that their newly purchased product is better for the oceans.
If you’re a marketer, or a consumer, these are some common blue claims that lead to ‘oceanwashing’:
- Ocean plastic vs ocean bound plastic vs beach plastic — Currently, there is no certification in existence that will certify that your product is made from plastic that is ocean-bound (plastic found in waterways on its way to the ocean) or direct-ocean plastic (plastics found directly in the ocean). It’s dependent upon the consumer to do the research. Additionally, consumers are led to believe that purchasing products with this label helps to reduce the plastics polluting beaches, waterways, and the oceans. When 12 million tons of plastic are still entering the oceans each year, the misleading claim is that buying the product will ‘clean’ the ocean—an unrealistic claim. The reality is that even the best designed and most well-intentioned products can’t do this.
- Marine biodegradable plastic — This is another common ‘blue claim’ that leads the consumer to believe that the specific product will disappear when it’s in water. These are biodegradable plastics that are believed to degrade in the marine environment over a specific timeframe. However, it doesn’t address the dilemma of single-use plastics and has created a new, linear product that follows the traditional lifecycle of creation to landfill. It also encourages reckless behavior, implying that abandoning these products in the environment wouldn’t be bad for our oceans.
- Recycled plastic — This is a better claim than the others, but it still implies ‘oceanwashing’. Recyclable plastic is plastic that can undergo a recycling process. There are many problems with recycling processes, but recycling is better than landfills or incineration. However, the reality is that all recyclable plastic isn’t being recycled. This claim is creating an alternative image of the true reality. In Europe, only 32.5% of plastic waste is recycled.
As a marketer, either avoid or be ready to back up any of these common ‘blue claims’. It’s an admirable idea to collect plastic from the ocean and recycle it into new products. However, it’s not the most substantial method to combat the global plastic problem. Most ‘blue claims’ are misleading, and take away from the bigger agenda, which is to educate citizens on the harmful effects of plastics and bring about the end of the fossil fuel era.
Lastly, many ocean products are made with PET bottles. PET (or Polyethylene terephthalate) is a healthier, harder, more rigid and stronger plastic to create products with. Typically, PET plastic can be recycled up to two or three times.
But when a PET bottle, for example, is removed from the marine environment and turned into an ocean product like a backpack, you’re removing its ‘circular loop’ opportunity by reducing the bottle’s use from three to only one time use.
This is problematic for two reasons: (1) you’re removing the PET bottle from the recycle where it can be used again and (2) by removing it from the recycle, you’re creating demand for new PET bottles to be created. PET is a petroleum-based product, which new bottles, increase or stantans fossil fuel products. Remove the PET bottle from the marine environment and put the bottle back into the loop to be made into new bottles.
As a marketer, be aware of the ocean plastic problem, but also how your communication of your ‘ocean plastic’ product can be misleading or harmful to the greater problem that we’re trying to solve (i.e. climate change).
Stand up for Big Blue!
