By Linda Stern 

Greenwashing isn’t about salad prep. It’s what companies do when they plaster their products with meaningless but inspiring labels like EARTH-FRIENDLY and ECO-SAFE. Sounds good, looks pretty, but how do you know whether you’re really getting an environmentally sound product?

You don’t, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which is reviewing the guidance it gives consumers on green pitches. “There’s a heightened potential for deception” with green claims like carbon offsets when you can’t monitor the actual effect, says FTC chair Deborah Platt Majoras.

Ignore the fluff and look for specifics, suggests the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. The words “organic” and “recycled” are regulated by the government and have legal meaning, as do the Energy Star designations given to appliances, electronics and other products by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department. You can look for independent certification by groups such as Green Seal (greenseal.org), EcoLogo (ecologo.org), the Greenguard Environmental Institute (greenguard.org) and the Forest Stewardship Council (fscus.org).

The more details you get, the better, says the FTC. Instead of going for the box that says “less waste,” buy one that says “20 percent less material.” If a product has those three little green chasing arrows, check to see if the box offers more info, like whether it’s recyclable or recycled, whether the symbol refers to the product or the package and what percentage is actually made of recycled materials. Be aware of what the environmental marketing company Terra Choice calls “hidden trade-offs”: products that claim one environmental virtue, like energy efficiency, but deliver another sin, like hazardous contents. Finally, don’t get smitten with the word “biodegradable.” Most of that stuff ends up in landfills anyway, and still takes a long time to go away.