by Shane Henson — October 22, 2012—The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued revised “Green Guides” that are designed to help marketers ensure that the claims they make about the environmental attributes of their products are truthful and non-deceptive. This decision will in turn give facilities managers and purchasers of numerous types of products, including cleaning products, more confidence in choosing those marketed for their low impact on the environment.
The Green Guides are not agency rules or regulations. Instead, they describe the types of environmental claims the FTC may or may not find deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Under Section 5, the agency can take enforcement action against deceptive claims, which ultimately can lead to Commission orders prohibiting deceptive advertising and marketing and fines if those orders are later violated, says the FTC.
In revising the Green Guides, the FTC modified and clarified sections of the previous Guides and provided new guidance on environmental claims that were not common when the Guides were last reviewed.
The Guides also:
- Advise marketers not to make an unqualified degradable claim for a solid waste product unless they can prove that the entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within one year after customary disposal;
- Caution that items destined for landfills, incinerators, or recycling facilities will not degrade within a year, so marketers should not make unqualified degradable claims for these items; and
- Clarify guidance on compostable, ozone, recyclable, recycled content, and source reduction claims.
The Guides issued take into account nearly 340 unique comments and more than 5,000 total comments received since the FTC released the proposed revised Guides in the fall of 2010, the agency says. They also include information gathered from three public workshops and a study of how consumers perceive and understand environmental claims.
