Should you pay extra for a product that claims to be good for the environment? Not according to a new study that finds wholesale lying about green claims on more than 5,000 goods.

The Wall Street Journal reports an environmental-marketing company called TerraChoice has found that more than 95% of products they looked at contained "no proof of environmental claims, vague or poorly defined marketing language...and the use of fake labels designed to imply a product has third-party certification or endorsement of its claims."

So when you see these items on shelf, and you're tempted to pay extra to do something good for the Earth, know that you're basically harming your wallet. Trying to go green will only subtract green from your life in most cases.

Manufacturers seem to be only too happy to "greenwash" their products, which is a term that's been coined for converting familiar, non-"green" products to allegedly eco-friendly ones. That speaks to how great the cachet is surrounding anything that's supposedly environmentally friendly.