Greenwashing, Wishcycling or Truth ?Separating Fact from Fiction with Updated FTC Green Guides
Stand Up Multi Barrier Pouch
In December 2022 the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) announced a plan to update their Environmental Claims “Green Guides”.
This update could not have come at a better time!
There’s been so much confusion, conflicting ideas, & polarized opinions on environmental claims such as “100% recyclable” or “recyclable”.
Help! How are consumers, brand owners and packaging folks to know what environmental claims are accurate?
(see the link below for the current FTC guide)
As a Food and Sustainable Packaging Coach, questions regarding environmental and sustainability claims arise on a regular basis. This long awaited update to the FTC Green Guide will bring needed clarity. The current guide is a constant companion as it helps to address many of my customers and clients environmental claim questions.
I recommend having it available to anyone interested in confirming environmental claims such as “100% recyclable”, or this product is packaged in a “recyclable” container. It also covers claims including compostability, toxicity, refillable and renewable etc.
I do not use the guide to “police” or “judge” my favorite food brands over their marketing claims. Truly, having worked with many food processors over the years, many of them have been as confused as most consumers. I believe they want to say and do the right thing. It’s important to their brand and future growth.
This new update helps bring clarity and order and allows us to properly advise or alert our favorite food companies and their packaging partners that they might need to reconsider their environmental claims in light of these updates. It opens the dialogue to bring order to a dysfunctional system.
Why is this important?
As we know the recycling system in the U.S. is for the most part broken. However, there is good news! There’s hope on the the horizon with more States discussing & approving EPR legislation and the additional funding it can provide. Additional funding, not paid by the taxpayer but by the products producers. Funding to build the robust recycling infrastructure needed to process the ever-growing packaging waste stream. (More to follow on EPR).
But until that day arrives, false or inaccurate claims create real issues at recycling centers for the items that are actually recyclable. Items that bear 100% recyclable and in fact are not and whose packages are not marked as per FTC guidelines do more harm than good. These packages get into a waste or recycling stream where they are not meant to me. It then takes additional time to sort and contamination occurs.
The better educated we all are, the better the current system will run. We’re all in this together!