Norris, Trenton H, et al. “California Enacts New Law Restricting Environmental Marketing Claims on Consumer Products: Environmental Edge: Blogs.” Arnold & Porter, 14 Oct. 2021, https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/blogs/environmental-edge/2021/10/ca-enacts-new-law-restricting-environmental.
The new AB 1201 restrictions concerning companies marketing claiming their products as being “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly” can only be used if products are composed by the ASTM standards and have documentation supporting these claims. Section 42357 prohibits terms like “biodegradable” that still contain plastic in them alone or with another material. If it is claimed as recyclable, the material made from it has to be at least 75% of that is from recycling programs. The AB 1201 will impact manufacturers as it would be hard to distribute their products along California if they don’t meet the standard. Those who fail to meet the requirements will be fined $2,500 per violation.
This is very necessary to proceed with taking action and accountability with companies who claim they are environmentally friendly and don’t do any harm with producing their products but are doing the quite opposite. It will later further take precautions and steps for companies to produce products that don’t contain plastic to avoid getting fined. I mean customers have shown they would be willing to pay more for a product if it had a sustainable message like producing fewer emissions. All these greenwashing companies are doing is showing more of the companies values rather than how good the product might be.
Great follow up to this article, Haily. I completely agree… all this greenwashing and misinformation has to stop. UC Steve has done a lot of work with Waste Management and was the first to tell me the notion of compostable plastic is a joke. Yet people who have good intentions will pay a lot of money if they think the disposable plastic is compostable. Plastic really isn’t that recyclable either. So, what do you think should be done? Is this a place for state laws to regulate single use plastic?
I think you have a great presentation of your information. It is terrible that many companies were able to sneak under the radar and call their products environmentally friendly when they weren’t. Do you believe that fines are enough to stop companies from greenwashing their products?