“Environmentally Friendly and Recyclable” Marketing claims and Why You Should Care!

For quite some time now, “environmentally friendly” and “recyclable” have been buzzwords. Based on current statistics, roughly 67 percent of adults confirm they regularly recycle metal cans and aluminum. However, of the 33.6 million tons of plastic discarded each year in the United States, only 6.5 percent is recycled. There is a growing number of purported environmentally friendly plastic bag manufacturers hard at work to combat the problem of discarded plastic. These manufacturers produce a broad range of claimed “eco-friendly” plastic products from recycled plastic for both personal and business use. With the ever changing federal regulatory requirements as to what can be stated when making claims on your custom bag, PolyPak America has put together a brief overview of the various statements and claims that can be made to be in compliance with the FTC.

·         Eco-Friendly claims: This claim would not be deceptive if the statement “made with recycled materials” is clear and prominent: the manufacturer can substantiate that the entire product or package is made from recycled material; making the product with recycled materials makes the product more environmentally beneficial overall.

·         Biodegradable claims: It is deceptive to make an unqualified degradable claim for items entering the solid waste stream if the items do not completely decompose within one year after customary disposal. Unqualified degradable claims for items that are customarily disposed in landfills, incinerators, and recycling facilities are deceptive because these locations do not present conditions in which complete decomposition will occur within one year. An example of a qualified Biodegradable claim would be if there was subsequent language identifying the conditions that would result in the product degrading and under what conditions must exist for the product to biodegradable and over what time period.

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PolyPak America
2939 East Washington Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
Zip Code: 90023
Business Phone: 323.264.2400
Business E-mail: sales@polypak.com