Do you ever see outrageously false and misleading claims made by companies about their products and wonder why no one has sued them to make them stop? Diet pills and other products that promise to take the pounds off in weeks easily come to mind.
As an environmentalist, I’m also frustrated by the related practice of greenwashing, which polluting industries engage in to make their products seem less harmful or even beneficial to the environment. Greenwashing with truthful claims is bad enough, but it’s totally unacceptable when companies are out-and-out lying about their product’s environmental credentials.
Enter the plastic bottle makers, who have been desperately trying to appear “green” since the public has become more aware of plastic manufacturers’ contribution to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A few of these companies have recently claimed their water bottles are “100 percent biodegradable and recyclable” to convince consumers that single-use plastic water bottles are still an acceptable–even environmental–purchase.
Perhaps they were unaware that in 2008, the California Legislature passed a landmark environmental marketing law banning the use of words like “biodegradable,” “degradable,” or “decomposable” in the labeling of plastic food or beverage containers, because in reality plastic takes thousands of years to break down and may never do so in a landfill. Senate Bill 567, recently signed into law by governor Jerry Brown, will expand that law to all plastic products beginning in 2013.
And now, enter California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a champion for the environment who has sued three such companies for false and misleading claims: Balance, AquaMantra, and ENSO Plastics LLC (the first two sell their products in plastic water bottles marketed by the third). According to the AG’s office:
Under California law, it is illegal to label a plastic food or beverage container as biodegradable. Plastic takes thousands of years to biodegrade and may never do so in a landfill. Today’s lawsuit is the first government action to enforce the state’s landmark environmental marketing law.
“These companies’ actions violate state law and mislead consumers,” Attorney General Harris said. “Californians are committed to recycling and protecting the environment, but these efforts are undermined by the false and misleading claims these companies make when they wrongly advertise their products as ‘biodegradable.'”
Boasting that a microbial additive has created the “first truly biodegradable and recyclable” plastic bottle that can break down in 5 years or less, the companies’ claims increase the chances that well-meaning consumers will do one of two things: 1) throw them in the trash on the false assumption that they will biodegrade quickly or 2) try to recycle them, creating challenges for recyclers who will have to contend with the microbial additive in the bottles.
According to the lawsuit, the additive compromises the bottles’ recyclability because it’s considered a “destructive contaminant” by the Association of Post Consumer Plastic Recyclers. The L.A. Bureau of Sanitation recently responded to an inquiry by the Los Angeles Times about the lawsuit with the following statement:
“Development of new materials, for packaging and otherwise … [is] often made without regard to the recycling infrastructure in place, resulting in incompatibility or outright non-recyclability of the new material. The Los Angeles Recycling Program urges the material manufacturing industry to work with the recycling (and composting) industry to avoid misrepresentations to the public on the recyclability of products.”]
The Attorney General’s office points to a recent Gallup poll that found that 76 percent of Americans buy products specifically because of their perception the product is better for the environment. The AG’s “first-of-its-kind ‘greenwashing’ lawsuit” will hopefully serve as a warning to other companies tempted to capitalize on being “green” that environmentally-inclined California demands truth in advertising.
Kamala Harris has always been a champion for the environment and public health, but she’s been pretty busy on that front lately. In addition to holding the plastic bottle companies accountable, Harris recently announced the filing of a proposed $24.5 million settlement with Chevron. The proposed settlement would resolve law enforcement allegations that Chevron violated state laws governing hazardous materials and hazardous waste by failing to properly inspect and maintain underground tanks used to store gasoline for retail sale.
Our AG also successfully defended California’s landmark Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) from a lawsuit filed against the California Fish and Game Commission by members of the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans, an industry group supported by foreign fishing equipment interests. The Attorney General took strong action in protecting California’s coast from this meritless legal attack by overseas special interests.
I applaud Attorney General Harris for consistently taking a stand for the environment against powerful industries. I’ll be joined in my applause in a few weeks by several hundred attendees of CLCV’s annual Environmental Leadership Awards, where Harris will be one of four honorees recognized for their outstanding work to protect California’s environment.
