It's not eco friendly if it costs a lot..

Zara Rabinowicz Writes...

As a writer for tech site Shiny Shinyit seems like almost every day I have an email pop into my inbox with a header screaming ‘ECO FRIENDLY’ or ‘GREEN GADGET’ and if I’m really unlucky it will say both in Comic Sans. The thing is whilst I applaud this green save our planet initiative I have to wonder at whether half these gadgets actually help. I mean rechargeable batteries and wind up radios are all very well, but when you think about how much it costs to design, create, and mass produce, oh, and package too, you start to worry about just how eco you are being.

A recent press event recently lauded a new gadget as ‘the greatest alternative to paper ever!’ declaring that this sat nav like system would mean you could store all your holiday info and maps on one little device, getting rid of the need for piste maps forever. Sounds laudable- what’s the price of this creation? A whopping £1500.

I start to think that these marketing people don’t hold me in high regard as £1500 - that would be A LOT of maps, and the excess money, hmm, I’m sure Children in Need appreciate donations. The reason I was so riled is that they tried to market it as eco friendly, without having any other benefits than being paper free (I guess the plans and the ad strategy, oh and the three pages of press release plus operating manual don’t count then).

Look, we’re OK with high quality products costing a lot, and doing weird and unnatural things, just please don’t try and pretend that they’re also green as that clearly isn’t the case. Consumers realise not every high end tech gadget can yet aspire to Hippy Shopper like credentials, so please don’t try and fool us- we won’t respect you for it, and if you’re lying to us, well then you clearly don’t respect us. And that doth not a happy partnership make.

Zara Rabinowicz writes for Shiny Shiny, Star Trip, The Baglady and Dollymix and doesn't always recycle.. but at least she doesn't pretend that she does.

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