Friday, May 6, 2011

Stop Sewer Sludge In Organic Gardens

Some of Hollywood's "green" celebrities—Rosario Dawson and a bevy of starlets—thought they were promoting organic school gardens for inner-city kids. But the Environmental Media Association (EMA) teamed them up with a secretive corporation whose main business is selling Los Angeles sewage sludge products!

That company calls its Kellogg brand "quality organics" and deceptively labels bags sold at the garden store as "garden soil" made from "compost"—with no mention that they are made from industrial and human waste. Sewage sludge is hazardous material containing dioxins, PCBs, medical waste, industrial solvents, flame retardants, heavy metals, endocrine disruptors and other contaminants. That's why federal law bars the use of sewage sludge-based products in organic gardens.

So, when news broke that Kellogg Garden Products provided sewage sludge products to EMA's organic school gardens—and its spokesperson even posed with those products at the gardens—you'd think EMA and its stars would cut all ties to the sludge industry.

But you'd be wrong. Instead of denouncing the contamination of the kids' gardens and the corporation's effort to "greenwash" its brand through associating with stars devoted to organic produce, EMA is sticking with its corporate donor. So far.

Tell Hollywood it's not green to partner with a company that put sewage sludge on school gardens and that sells this stuff without labeling it to say "This product is derived from sewage sludge." Sign the petition to demand that Hollywood stop the greenwashing of sewage sludge now!

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