“Greenwashing” is trying to make consumers think that a firm is doing more to protect the environment than it really is. US environmentalist Jay Westerveld created the term in the 1980s. He based it on notices in hotel rooms that asked guests to reuse their towels to save the environment. Westerveld claimed the hotels simply enjoyed the benefit of lower laundry costs without doing anything else to protect the environment.
Another example of greenwashing is when companies use language and design to suggest that a product is a good ecological option when it actually is not. Shampoos, for example, often market the idea of nature, but don’t use ingredients that are free from chemical processing.
Also, bottled water might have a beautifully designed bottle that gives the impression that the water comes from a glacier or a mountain stream, when the reality is often that the bottle is not recyclable and ends up in a landfill, while the water it contains is more contaminated than tap water.