Greta Thunberg merchandise boom looks a tacky contradiction

Greta Thunberg’s book may have been printed on sustainable paper, but her army of supporters aren’t so diligent.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends a climate march, in Turin, Italy, earlier this month. Picture: AP

Greta Thunberg may have insisted that her best-selling book was printed on paper sourced only from sustainable forests but the young campaigner’s army of supporters do not appear to be quite so environmentally diligent in expressing their admiration for her.

The popularity of the 16-year-old Swedish activist’s uncompromising message on the danger of climate change has led to a boom in the sale of “Greta” merchandise online but analysis by The Times suggests that much of it is either shipped from China or made from materials that may damage the planet.

There is no suggestion that Ms Thunberg or her family has endorsed or is linked to any of the manufacturers or vendors or profits from sales. It is unclear whether images of her are being used legally.

Amazon, eBay and Etsy are awash with Greta T-shirts, mugs, stickers, badges and bags this Christmas, most of them emblazoned with her image or popular slogans, such as “listen to the scientists” and “there is no planet B”.

Some vendors have created more niche products, such as the scented Greta prayer candle for £16 ($30) or the Greta “viking warrior” garden gnome for £33.99 plus shipping. One enterprising eBay seller has managed to shift 600 Greta car air fresheners.

Few of the products deserve to be on any genuine environmentalist’s Christmas list. The gnome, for example, is made from bonded acrylic resin, a material that is not easily recycled nor readily biodegradable. The manufacture of acrylic can also involve toxins that are potentially harmful to factory workers and the environment, according to campaigners.

Greta Thunberg at a climate strike arranged by Fridays For Future outside the Swedish parliament Riksdagen in Stockholm on Friday. Picture: AFP

Many of the T-shirts, such as the best-selling “Skolstrejk for Klimatet” on Etsy, are part polyester, a non-biodegradable fabric made from petrochemicals. The blog trustedclothes.com gives polyester a Grade F, the worst mark on its sustainability scale. It says: “Polyester requires petroleum (crude oil), a non-renewable source that is categorised as fossil fuel and other chemicals to produce, as well as energy to heat and power the process.”

Other merchandise has racked up air miles that would make Ms Thunberg lose sleep. Many of the T-shirts on eBay, for example, are manufactured in China with shipping offered worldwide. Buyers are perhaps also forgetting the appalling environmental record of China’s textile industry. The World Bank says that a fifth of industrial water pollution in the country comes from the dyeing and treatment of clothes.

Of the dozens of Greta products examined by The Times, only one offered any money to green charities, with a lone T-shirt vendor on eBay promising to donate 10 per cent of proceeds to Save the Planet.

The only officially endorsed product appears to be her book, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, a collection of her speeches on the environment. Ms Thunberg’s media representatives, the European Climate Foundation, declined to comment.

Not all of the merchandise available online is entirely supportive of her cause or her robust delivery. One of the most popular items on Etsy is a Christmas jumper emblazoned with an image of an angry-looking Ms Thunberg above the words, “How dare you have a merry Christmas.” Her challenge to world leaders features on other items without the Christmas quip.

A golfer was criticised on Friday for comparing Ms Thunberg to Hitler and Stalin. The European Tour winner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano posted on Twitter that his flights produced 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide last year. In the caption, he wrote: “Another year in the books! Enjoy @GretaThunberg.” When one fan replied that it was not a good look to be mocking Time magazine’s person of the year, the Spaniard, 39, hit back: “So what? Adolf Hitler was @TIME Person of the Year in 1938. So was Stalin, not once but twice.”

The Times