Federal ‘Green’ Ad Rules Proposed : Marketing: Ten state attorneys general offer a way to protect consumers from misleading claims about the environmental friendliness of products.
In an attempt to chop through the tangle of environmental claims made by consumer products, a group of 10 state attorneys general has recommended uniform federal standards for “green” advertising.
Their preliminary report recommends formation of a federal regulatory system for evaluating environmental product claims. The task force wants the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to work with the states to form standards and a regulatory system. The FTC and EPA both sent representatives to a public forum last March and are scheduled to attend another open meeting in San Diego next month.
The 10-state task force was responding to consumer and environmentalist protests that many product claims of environmental friendliness are misleading. It has been taking testimony and examining product promotional wording for the past year. It held a widely publicized public forum in St. Paul, Minn., last March, examining various products--from hair sprays that claim to be ozone-friendly to disposable diapers advertised as biodegradable.
Since then, the attorneys general have sued Mobil Chemical Co. in seven states over degradability claims made for its Hefty trash bags. They also have induced at least one disposable diaper company to change the description and packaging of its product.
The task force’s study, the Green Report, was released today. It represents the group’s first broad policy recommendations.
The actions of “those marketers who unscrupulously view environmental advertising as merely another selling tool . . . will not go unnoticed,” Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp warned in releasing the report in California.
Until a federal regulatory system is set up, the attorneys general offered advice to businesses trying to plan for some form of green-marketing regulation, which most consider inevitable.
Environmental marketing claims should be specific, said the report. Rather than using such vague claims as that a product is “safe for the environment,” the task force would narrow the phrase to something like “does not contribute to ozone depletion,” since the product could be good for the atmosphere but environmentally unsound in other respects.
Marketing claims should also “reflect current locally available disposal options.” One of the hottest issues has been products that describe themselves as biodegradable or recyclable but which in reality will end up buried, and intact, in landfills. For instance, while a newspaper can be recycled, or will degrade if composted, it will remain virtually unchanged if buried in an airtight landfill.
The task force also defined such terms as “recyclable,” “biodegradable” and “compostable,” and advised businesses to support such claims with “competent and reliable” scientific evidence.
The recommendations were developed from testimony by business, government and environmental-group leaders, many of whom have called for national standards. Big consumer products companies such as Lever Bros. Co. are concerned about the possibility that states will impose inconsistent labeling laws that will make national marketing of products more cumbersome.
“As a nationwide consumer package-good company, we believe it’s in our best interest, and in the best interest of the consumer, that there be less confusion,” said Melinda Sweet, Lever Bros.’ director of environmental affairs. “We’ve been thinking along the same lines.”
The task force, which includes Van de Kamp and the attorneys general of Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, is led by Minnesota Atty. Gen. Hubert H. Humphrey III.
In the group’s first completed effort at enforcement, American Enviro Products of Placentia, maker of Bunnies disposable diapers, last month agreed to alter its claims that Bunnies were good for the environment. The company had claimed that the diapers would degrade in three to five years, It also agreed to change the diapers’ packaging and paid $5,000 in settlement costs to each of the states in the task force.
A public forum, to be hosted by Van de Kamp and including FTC and EPA representatives, will be held Dec. 10 and 11 in San Diego to take reaction to these preliminary recommendations. A final report will be released after that meeting.
