Are you able to trust corporations that claim their plastic products are recyclable? US regulators could crack down on misleading claims

Plastic makes up a rapidly growing proportion of municipal waste within the United States and most of it results in the environment. Only 9% of plastic collected in household waste was recycled in 2018, the last 12 months for which national data is accessible. The rest was burned in waste incineration plants or buried in landfills.

Manufacturers claim that higher recycling is the optimal technique to reduce plastic pollution. However, critics argue that the industry often exaggerates how well things can actually be recycled. In September 2024, the beverage manufacturer Keurig Dr Pepper Was Fine of 1.5 million US dollars for falsely claiming that its K-Cup coffee pods were recyclable after two major recycling corporations said they may not process the cups. California is suing ExxonMobil, accusing the corporate of Plastic products are falsely advertised as recyclable.

Environmental law scholar Patrick Parenteau explains why recyclability claims cause confusion amongst consumers and the way future Federal Trade Commission guidelines could address this problem.

Why do manufacturers need guidelines on what “recyclable” means?

The determination that a product is recyclable implies that it might be collected, separated or otherwise recovered from the waste stream for reuse or use within the manufacture of other products. But it’s difficult to define exactly what this implies. several reasons:

• Different states within the US have different recycling regulations and guidelines, which may affect what is taken into account recyclable in a specific location.

• The availability and quality of recycling infrastructure also varies from place to position. Even if a product is technically recyclable, a neighborhood recycling facility may not have the opportunity to simply accept it because its equipment is insufficient.

• If there isn’t a market demand for the recycled material, there’s little likelihood that recycling corporations won’t accept it.

What role does the Federal Trade Commission play?

Public concern about plastic pollution has skyrocketed in recent times. A 2020 survey found that 91% of consumers worldwide were concerned about plastic waste.

Once plastic enters the environment, it might 1,000 years or more decomposes depending on environmental conditions. Exposure by ingestion, inhalation or in drinking water poses potential risks to human health and wildlife.

The role of the Federal Trade Commission is to guard the general public from misleading or unfair business practices and unfair competition practices. Every 12 months it brings Hundreds of cases against individuals and firms for violating consumer protection and competition laws. These cases can include fraud, scams, identity theft, misleading promoting, data protection violations, anti-competitive behavior and more.

The FTC publishes references that Green travel guidesdesigned to assist marketers avoid making environmental claims that mislead consumers. The guidelines were first issued in 1992 and revised in 1996, 1998 and 2012. Although the rules themselves aren’t enforceable, the Commission can use them to prove that a claim is misleading and violates federal law.

The guidelines they supply include:

• General principles that apply to all environmental marketing claims

• How consumers interpret claims and the way marketers can substantiate those claims

• How marketers can make clear their promoting claims to avoid misleading consumers

The agency monitors environmental marketing for potentially misleading claims and assesses compliance with FTC Act of 1914 by reference to the Green Guides. Marketing that doesn’t comply with the Green Guides could also be considered unfair or deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act.

Courts also see Green Guides when examining claims for misleading promoting in private litigation.

Currently, the Green Guides state that marketers To relativize claims that products are recyclable if recycling facilities aren’t available to a minimum of 60% of the consumers or communities where a product is sold.

How does the agency cope with claims regarding recyclability?

The FTC is reviewing the Green Guides and has a Request for public comment The guidelines will probably be published at the top of 2022. In May 2023, the agency will convene a workshop called “Talking Trash at the FTC: Recycling Claims and the Green Guides.”

This meeting addressed the 60% processing threshold for recycling claims and the potential confusion attributable to the “Recycling symbol “hunting arrows”which regularly indicates the variety of plastic resin utilized in a product, with the numbers 1 to 7.

Many critics argue that buyers might even see the symbol and assume that a product is recyclable, despite the fact that municipal recycling programs aren’t available in all places for some sorts of resin. Other labels use a version of the symbol for products similar to single-use shopping bags, which aren’t accepted in most curbside recycling programs, but delivered in certain shops for recycling.

The FTC has asked the general public for comment on specific features that make products recyclable. It has also asked whether unconditional claims of recyclability needs to be made if recycling facilities can be found to a “substantial majority” of consumers or communities where the item is sold – even when the item is ultimately not recycled attributable to market demand, budget constraints or other aspects.

What do corporations and environmentalists say?

Environmental associations, recycling corporations and the waste and packaging industry have recommend quite a few suggestions for updating the Green Guides. For example:

• The US Environmental Protection Agency asked the FTC to Increasing the thresholds for recycling claims beyond the present rate of 60%. The EPA stated that products and packaging “should not be considered recyclable unless there are strong end markets where they can be reliably sold at a price that exceeds the cost of disposal.” It also beneficial that corporations' claims on recyclability be verified and licensed by outside experts.

• The Consumer Brand Associationwhich represents the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Plastics Industry Association and other business interests, called for more research into Public understanding of environmental marketing claimsTo help corporations avoid making misleading promoting claims, she asked the FTC to supply more detailed explanations with examples of acceptable marketing.

• The Association of Plastics Recyclers asked the FTC to strengthen enforcement against fraudulent, unqualified claims each by way of recyclability and recycled content. It beneficial providing stricter, more binding guidelines, publishing concrete examples of misleading claims from the market, and sending warning letters when corporations make seemingly unsubstantiated claims. It also called on the FTC to keep up its current recyclability threshold at 60% and to update the Green Guides again inside five years as an alternative of ten.

• A coalition of environmental groups, including GreenpeaceUSA and the Centre for Biological Diversitycalled on the Commission to codify the Green Guidelines into binding rulesThey also argued that for goods that have to be returned in-store, corporations must reveal that processors can capture and recycle a minimum of 75% of the fabric.

The FTC has not yet set a date for releasing a final version of the revised Green Guides. All eyes will probably be on the agency to see how far it’s willing to go to manage manufacturers' recycling claims on this area. $90 billion US industry.