CA Sues 3 Plastic Bottle Companies Over 'Green' Claims

LOS ANGELESCalifornia Attorney General Kamala D. Harris filed a lawsuit on Oct. 26 alleging ENSO Plastics LLC, Balance Water and AquaMantra made false and misleading claims about the biodegradability and recyclability of plastic bottles by marketing them as "100% biodegradable and recyclable."

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, alleges the companies engaged in greenwashing," or misleading consumers about environmental claims. The complaint is the first action the Attorney General's office has taken to enforce the state's 2008 environmental law that bans the use of the words "biodegradable," "degradable" or "compostable" in labeling plastic food or beverage containers. Senate Bill 567, signed into law by the Gov. Jerry Brown this year, will expand that law to all plastic products beginning in 2013.

"These companies' actions violate state law and mislead consumers," Harris said. "Californians are committed to recycling and protecting the environment, but these efforts are undermined by the false and misleading claims these companies make when they wrongly advertise their products as 'biodegradable'."

Balance and AquaMantra sell their products in plastic water bottles marketed by ENSO Plastics. According to the label, ENSO claims that a microbial additive created the "first truly biodegradable and recyclable" plastic bottle. The bottles' labeling states the bottles will break down in less than five years in a typical landfill or compost environment, but that claim is false because the additive does not speed up the centuries-long process required to break down plastic.

The complaint also alleges the claim of recycling is deceptive because the microbial additive put into the bottle is considered by the Association of Post Consumer Plastic Recyclers to be a "destructive contaminant" that can compromise the strength of the products they make.

Click here to read the entire complaint.