The Federal Trade Commission Friday approved a final
order prohibiting a Washington-based plastic bag manufacturer from
making false biodegradability claims about its products.
American
Plastic Manufacturing, Inc. may not make biodegradability claims
unless the representations are true and supported by competent and reliable
scientific evidence, according to a
press announcement from the FTC.
“The company must have evidence that the entire plastic
product will completely decompose into elements found in nature within one year
after customary disposal (defined as disposal in a landfill, incinerator, or
recycling facility) before making any unqualified biodegradable claim,” the FTC
release says.
Photo courtesy of Taber
Andrew Bain under a Creative Commons
Attribution 2.0 license.
The order is the fourth
issued since the agency in October began cracking
down on a group of six manufacturers over false “green” claims.
APM had been making statements about the environmental benefits
of its bags on the company’s website and elsewhere.
APM's claims were in part based on an additive it was
purchasing from another company, ECM Biofilms, Inc., called MasterBatch
Pellets. The additive supposedly caused plastics made with it to break down.
ECM Biofilms is also under fire for false claims the FTC alleged it made. That
case is pending.
A typical claim cited as misleading in
APM's marketing materials reads: “Using an additive from ECM Biofllms (ecmbiofllms.com),
our biodegradable bags break down completely when in contact with other
decomposing materials; in compost bins, landfills, or just buried in the
ground.”
In its original
complaint, the FTC said APM used results from a test from the American
Society for Testing and Materials to substantiate its claims. The “International
D5511-12, Standard Test Method for Determining Anaerobic Biodegradation of
Plastic Materials under High Solids Anaerobic Digestion Conditions,” is meant
to determine the rate and degree of anaerobic biodegradability of plastic
products when placed in a high-solids anaerobic digester, according to ATSM’s website.
High-solids anaerobic digesters are facilities used to break
down materials, sometimes including plastics, using microorganisms without
oxygen for the production of energy. Digester systems vary, and they are not
necessarily equivalent to the conditions in landfills or other environments.
ATSM even warns those who employ its method that performance
claims “shall be limited to the numerical result obtained in the test and not
be used for unqualified ‘biodegradable’ claims.” It adds that the results
should not be extrapolated beyond the duration of the test.
The FTC pointed out that APM’s
bags would not in fact break down in a reasonably short period of time after
disposal.
The FTC’s final order didn’t specify what sources of
evidence would allow APM to make future biodegradability claims. It did offer
guidelines, though, saying “any scientific technical protocol (or combination
of protocols) substantiating such claims must assure complete decomposition
within one year and replicate...the physical conditions found in landfills,
where most trash is disposed.”
The order lasts 20 years and requires APM to follow up with
the FTC to remain in compliance.
The APM case and the other five related cases are part of a
larger ongoing effort by the FTC to regulate more strictly businesses’ environmental
claims. The agency released
new guidelines in 2012 after a two-year revision process; the National
Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau has also adopted
them.
The updated rules are meant to curb “greenwashing,” the
practice of inflating or misrepresenting the environmental benefits of a
product or service.
FTC Final Order:
