California bill targets recycled content definition

A member of the California legislative assembly has introduced a bill she says is designed to protect consumers from “deceptive recycled content claims.”

The bill, backed by the Sacramento, California-based not-for-profit group Californians Against Waste (CAW), is known as Assembly Bill (AB) 2253 and has been introduced by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, a Democrat from Encinitas, California.

According to CAW, the bill if converted into law would “prohibit plastic and consumer product companies from using misleading recycled content ‘credit schemes and other accounting gimmicks that allow them to advertise recycled content even when none is physically present in the product, undermining consumers’ efforts to make environmentally responsible choices.”

The organization specifically mentions mass balance, free allocation and book-and-claim accounting methods as recycled content “credit schemes or accounting gimmicks” CAW says can result in the creation of packaging or products labeled as containing recycled materials that do not.

Under such systems companies can purchase credits associated with “debatably recycled material from elsewhere in the global supply chain or use convoluted accounting methods that generate credits untethered from recycled material,” states CAW. “As a result, companies can claim high levels of recycled content even when none is physically present in the product itself,” adds the group.

“This bill is very simple: if a product claims to contain recycled content, that claim must reflect the product’s actual, physical recycled material,” said Boerner. “Californians care deeply about sustainability and deserve honest information. I look forward to working with Californians Against Waste to ensure companies cannot use accounting tricks to mislead consumers.”

Boerner and CAW describe California as a state that has relied on recycled content as a cornerstone of its recycling and waste reduction strategy. Incorporating recycled materials into products such as plastic bottles, packaging, paper and glass creates stable demand for materials collected through recycling programs, they say, resulting in loops that help keep materials out of landfills and that support recycling infrastructure and jobs.

 “Consumers should be able to trust the labels they see on store shelves,” says Kayla Robinson, legislative director of CAW. “Credit-based accounting schemes allow companies to inflate recycled content claims without actually increasing the use of recycled materials in products. This legislation restores integrity to the marketplace and ensures that recycled content claims mean what consumers think they mean.”

Says Renee Sharp of the New York-based National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “This bill will protect consumers against deception on the products they buy. When it comes to recycled content, consumers want and deserve accurate information, not misleading accounting and marketing schemes.”

According to CAW, existing law requires companies that make recycled-content claims about plastic food containers to maintain documentation showing that the recycled material was diverted from the waste stream and that the claim complies with United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) standards. If passed, AB 2253 would extend similar requirements to all products and clarify that recycled content claims must be based on the actual recycled material in a product.