GREENWASHING
The European Parliament has approved a new Directive banning greenwashing and deceptive product information, to protect consumers from misleading marketing practices and promote sustainable choices.
The legislation, known as the Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT), takes a stand against “vague and baseless” green claims. Among the key provisions, the Directive prohibits the use of general environmental terms such as “environmentally friendly,” “natural,” “biodegradable,” “climate neutral” or “eco” without substantiated proof.
One of the vague and baseless green claims most frequently made is that plastic is “compostable,” and this must now stop. Garden waste is compostable because it converts into compost, but plastic does not. The type of plastic marketed as compostable is required by industry Standards EN13432 and ASTMD6400 to convert into CO2 gas within 180 days, and it provides no value for the soil.
Another vague and baseless green claim is that the type of plastic marketed as “compostable” is “biodegradable.” This is also deceptive, because that type of plastic is tested to biodegrade in a composting facility. If described as biodegradable, consumers will think that it biodegrades in the same way in the open environment, and this claim must also be stopped.
Another vague and baseless green claim is that the biodegradation of plastic in a composting facility is organic recycling. Far from being recycling, converting a material into CO2 which is immediately emitted to atmosphere, is waste.
Another vague and baseless green claim which should not be made is that the type of plastic marketed as “compostable” is “bio-based.” What are consumers expected to think that “bio” means in this context? What does “based” mean in this context? What proportion of the plastic is derived from vegetable materials, and what proportion from petrochemicals?
Another vague and baseless green claim is that the type of plastic marketed as “compostable” is “renewable” or “sustainable.” It may be that the portion of this plastic derived from vegetable matter is renewable in the sense that the vegetables can be grown year after year, but this ignores the land and water resources employed, and the energy used and pollution caused, by machinery used to grow the crops, transport very heavy loads to a factory, and process and polymerise the material. It also ignores the fact that it has a worse LCA than ordinary plastic https://www.biodeg.org/subjects-of-interest/life-cycle-assessments/
The use of the word “bioplastic” should also be banned because it causes confusion. Does it mean a plastic product made wholly or partly from vegetable materials, and if so in what proportion? Does it mean a plastic which is biodegradable, and if so by hydro-biodegradation or oxo-biodegradation?
OXO-BIODEGRADABLE
The suppliers of oxo-biodegradable masterbatches to the plastics industry do not make the plastic products or write the labels. This is done by the manufacturers of the products and the retailers. So, if the labels are false, it is rather like blaming Mercedes for making false claims because someone has applied a Mercedes badge to a car which did not work properly, and which Mercedes had not manufactured.
It is true that irresponsible manufacturers and retailers are all too often deceiving their customers by claiming that products are oxo-biodegradable and affixing the logo of a reputable masterbatch supplier, such as Symphony’s d2w logo, but not including the masterbatch in the right quantity or at all. Plastic products should not therefore be sold as oxo-biodegradable, nor bear the logo of a masterbatch supplier, unless the seller can produce evidence that the product has been correctly made with that supplier’s masterbatch which has been successfully tested for degradation, biodegradation, and ecotoxicity according to ASTM D6954, BS8472, SASO 2789, ASTM D5338, ASTM D5988, ISO 14855, ISO 17556 or similar.
BREAD BAGS
A company called Treetop Biopak is supplying the bakery industry with plastic bags which it describes as “home compostable” but for the reasons given above they should not be described as “compostable” at all.
Further, in the UK Parliament on 2nd December 2022 the Government were asked what assessment they had made of the compostability of plastics certified as “home compostable.” the Environment Minister replied: “The Government notes the findings from UCL’s study into the home composting of plastics. The study has shown that home composting is not a viable destination for managing plastic waste.”
Plastic bread bags are much better than paper, but if they get into the open environment as litter they can lie or float around for decades. The way to solve this problem is to make them with d2w biodegradable technology, which the largest bread producer in the world has been doing successfully for more than 15 years.
NEW JERSEY
I have been reading an article in Plastics News saying that “New Jersey’s plastic bag ban has shifted consumer bag use to reusables while also resulting in a 40 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions and creating a profit center for retailers selling reusable bags,” a new study says.
“The study, prepared by Freedonia Custom Research and funded by the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, pointed to a six-fold increase in polypropylene used to make woven and nonwoven PP reusable bags and said 90 percent of alternative bags are used only two or three times, much less than the reuse rates needed to mitigate higher greenhouse gas emissions from those bags.”
“This shift in material resulted in a notable environmental impact, with the increased consumption of polypropylene bags contributing to a 500 percent increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to non-woven polypropylene bag production in 2015”
The study said the typical nonwoven PP bag, the dominant alternative bag, uses 15 times as much plastic and produces five times the GHG emissions in production than the single-use polyethylene bag.
As a result, it said overall GHG emissions from production of bags sold in the state increased no less than 40 percent after the ban, compared with the baseline in 2015.
Michael Stephen
Michael Stephen is a lawyer and was a member of the United Kingdom Parliament, where he served on the Environment Select Committee. When he left Parliament Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc. attracted his attention because of his interest in the environment. He is now Deputy Chairman of Symphony, which is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, and is the founder and Chairman of the Biodegradable Plastics Association.
Earlier Postings in this Column
All articles from Michael Stephen
Interview with Michael Stephen
Questions and Answers on OXO-Biodegradability
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed here by Michael Stephen and other columnists are their own, not those of Bioplasticsnews.com