The US
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a revised version of its ‘Green
Guide’, which warns against misleading claims regarding compostable
plastics.
The FTC had two concerns –
the first related to the limited availability in the US of industrial
composting facilities where plastics are accepted; the second related to the
performance of compostable plastics in home and industrial composting.
The commission therefore
warned that “to avoid deception about the limited availability of municipal or
institutional composting facilities a marketer should clearly and prominently
qualify compostable claims if such facilities are not available to a
substantial majority of consumers or communities where the item is sold”.
Given that most
compostable plastics cannot be handled by home-composting the guide indicates
that firms should clearly and prominently qualify compostable claims to avoid
deception if the item cannot be composted safely in a home compost device.
The FTC also warned
against making potentially misleading claims about a material’s “renewable”
credentials and said that any “compostable” claim must be substantiated by
reliable scientific evidence that the entire item would break down in a safe
and timely manner in an appropriate composting facility or a home composting
pile.
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