Attention eBay shoppers!

I'm curious to hear people's reactions to eBay's new "Green Team" initiative. I haven't swum the deep waters of eBay yet as a buyer or seller, though I know I should and also know lots of people who love it.

I'll tell you that as someone who researches environmental and greening claims and is deeply attuned to "greenwashing" (false or exaggerated greening claims for marketing purposes), I have to say that at first glance, the eBay stuff looks pretty good.

What I see at first glance is (a) an open forum for discussion of environment-related topics, (b) a "Green Team" forumyou can join, (c) greening tips and tales from Daily Green, and the (by my estimation) most interesting and laudable parts, (d) tips on selling green and (3) tips on buying green.

Of course. eBay is a naturally mixed bag. The great side is - when you're finished with things, give/sell them to someone else! Reduce/re-use at its best. Saves you from making trash, saves the person buying from buying new. Great! Thumbs up! Fabulous! The shipping, of course...it would be better if we were all doing this in our own communities...but how picky can we be? And not all eBay stuff is used... But the point is that eBay's new "buy green" features enable and encourage you to find things that are "green" because they are used, "sustainable" (sounds like this is used to describe things that are new but created using sustainable materials), or "resource-saving" (i.e., energy-efficient).

But their "selling green" section (while not revolutionary, making good but not-new suggestions like "recycle" and "save and reuse packaging") does a very nice job of laying out some details about green packaging, green shipping, and even green marketing.

Anyway, I'll be quiet and let you
check it out.