Have you ever bought a pair of leggings or a t-shirt made from recycled plastic bottles? Or something from a collection with the word conscious written across it?

Over the past year, we've spent a lot of time learning about greenwashing. And the more we've learned, the more we've realised how easy it is to believe a good story, especially when most of us are really just trying to make better choices for our families and for the world our children will grow up in. We want to believe that the things we buy reflect those intentions, but good intentions and good marketing aren't always the same as good outcomes.

So, what actually is greenwashing?

It's a word we hear quite often now… Greenwashing happens when a brand makes something appear more environmentally responsible than it actually is. Here's an example that caught almost all of us at The Simple Folk out. Have you ever bought something proudly labelled "made from recycled plastic bottles"? We certainly have. We saw those words and felt good about our choice. After all, turning plastic waste into something useful sounds like a wonderful idea, doesn't it?

Well, it turns out there's a little more to the story. Plastic bottles can be recycled into new bottles multiple times. But when those bottles are turned into polyester fibres for clothing, they leave that bottle-to-bottle recycling system. And once those fibres are blended with other materials, as they often are, recycling them again becomes incredibly difficult. Most of these garments won't be recycled into new clothes at the end of their life.

That made us rethink the whole thing, because the claim itself wasn't untrue. The clothes really were made from recycled bottles. But we'd been given one positive part of the story without understanding what happened next. It was a reminder that knowing where a material comes from is important, but understanding where it goes afterwards matters just as much. And that one good decision, however well-intentioned, doesn't automatically make an entire garment responsible.

Three questions we've started asking

We're certainly not suggesting that every time you buy a pair of trousers, you need to spend an afternoon researching the company behind them. As mothers, we know how many decisions already fill an ordinary day. The last thing any of us needs is another impossible standard to live up to. But there are a few questions we've found helpful.

What is the brand actually telling me? When we read words like conscious, eco-friendly, or responsible, we try to look a little closer. What exactly makes this product a better choice? Is there something specific behind the claim, or is it simply a nice word on a label?

What aren't they telling me? If a brand is talking about recycled fibres, that's interesting. But we'd also like to know about the people who made the garment, the processes involved, and what happens when it reaches the end of its life. Sometimes the most useful information is the part that isn't being advertised.

Is the brand trying to make better clothes, or just sell more clothes? This one has really stayed with us. Because a beautifully made garment still needs to have a purpose. It needs to be worn, cared for, and ideally stay in someone's wardrobe for a long time. We find ourselves increasingly drawn to brands that think about the whole life of a product, rather than just how to make its beginning sound good.

We don't think this should all be on you

There's something else we want to say, because it feels important. For years, so much of the conversation around sustainability has focused on what we, as customers, should be doing differently. Buy better. Read the labels. Research the materials. Ask more questions.

And while those things help, we don't think it's fair to place all that responsibility on the person standing in a shop. Brands are the ones choosing the materials, working with suppliers, deciding how much to produce, and determining what information to share. Surely, the responsibility to make better choices should begin there.

At The Simple Folk, we're still learning what that looks like in practice. We've made decisions we feel good about, and others we've had to reconsider as we've learned more. We're trying to be more open about both, because we don't believe responsibility is about getting everything right the first time. We think it's about being willing to look a little closer, acknowledge what you don't know, and make changes when you know better.

And perhaps that's what we hope you'll take away from this. Not another thing to worry about. Not another reason to feel guilty about something you've bought. Just a little more curiosity.

So that the next time we see a beautiful label telling us a product is better for the planet, we might find ourselves asking one more question: Better in what way?

And we think that's a pretty good place to start.