U.S. federal law prohibits companies from making false or misleading claims about their products or packaging's environmental qualities, including about recyclability and compostability. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for enforcing this prohibition. In 1992, the FTC developed the "Green Guides" to explain what the agency considers acceptable and unacceptable environmental marketing claims. Since then, the Green Guides have become the defacto national standard for evaluating whether a marketing claim about a product or packaging is legal or not. Courts use them when addressing lawsuits on this topic and companies use them to determine how they should market and label their products.

The FTC last updated its Green Guides in 2012. Since then, there have been significant changes in both consumer perception of and behavior related to environmental marketing claims. Given the public’s increasing concerns about climate change, environmental degradation, and plastic pollution, consumers are increasingly interested in purchasing products with minimal environmental impacts.

Unfortunately, the Green Guides do not currently define the various terms related to the many different types of bioplastics available to consumers. In addition, the section of the Green Guides dealing with compostability is both too short and too vague to be effective.

Join us in urging Lina M. Kahn, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, to update the Green Guides this year (2024) to strengthen and clarify the terminology related to compostability and to add a new section defining requirements for the various terms used to market bioplastics to minimize confusion and aid consumers in evaluating the claims made about various products.