Is Ignorance Greenwashing? Home Depot Can’t Tell Customer About Its Own Recycling Program

From a reader tip:

Most major retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, have electronics recycling programs for consumers to safely dispose of their electronics gadgets and appliances. Home Depot ostensibly offers one as well, but you might not know that if you talked with a Home Depot customer service representative.

A reader tip from John tells the following story:

John wanted to recycle an old microwave so he called Home Depot’s customer service department to get recycling information. John contacted one and then a second representative, neither one, John reports, had any idea of what to tell him.

John finally got an answer from Micaiah Holley from Home Depot’s Customer Support Center, informing John about their partnership with 1-800-Cleanup, a recycling hotline offered by Earth911. The problem is two out of three customer reps at Home Depot knew anything about it. At least that is John’s experience.

It may not rise to the level of full-blown greenwash, but how well a company, or any organization, disseminates information about its sustainability and environmental stewardship programs is a true reflection of how important those values are to that organization.

Image credit: The Lazy Environmentalist (image is not that of our tipper. Thanks John for the tip!)