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Walk into the grocery store and check the back of a food container. Chances are you’ll see a small box with instructions on how to throw away the packaging when you’re done with it: “empty and replace lid,” for example, or “recycle if clean and dry “.

These labels are made by Comment2Recyclea program run by the nonprofit GreenBlue, which sells them to more than 700 large food and consumer goods companies to promote their products. The idea behind their creation was to alleviate confusion among consumers about what to do with all the boxes, jars, jugs and bottles their purchases come packaged in.

In recent years, however, companies have been criticized for being too liberal in their use of the iconic “chasing arrows” recycling symbol: this gives the impression that plastic bags and other products are more recyclable than they actually aren’t. Regulators took note. At the national level, the Federal Trade Commission is prepare an update of its “Green Guides” for the use of sustainability labels, including the recycling symbol. And in California, state law should restrict pursuit arrows for most plastic packaging, unless there is evidence that plastic is widely collected and transformed into new products within the state. The How2Recycle program, created to help clean up this mess, is also under fire today.

Earlier this month, GreenBlue announced it was revamping its more than decade-old How2Recycle labels. In a presentation at SPC Advance, a conference hosted by one of GreenBlue’s subsidiaries, Paul Nowak, executive director of GreenBlue, said labels must “evolve with the world around us”, taking into account factors such as “policy” and “recycling rates”.

However, based on a sample image of the new labels, it is unclear whether GreenBlue’s updates will address concerns that they are tools of so-called greenwashing or whether they comply with state law. Because there is no evidence that some of the products that will feature the new designs are actually recycled most of the time, the labels could violate California’s rules against misleading advertising and expose GreenBlue to legal action from regulators of the State and consumer defense organizations.

The proposed labels are “an obvious and transparent attempt by the industry to circumvent California law,” said Howie Hirsch, a retired California attorney who has worked on several recycling-related misleading advertising lawsuits. .

Hirsch specifically objects to GreenBlue’s label for “store drop-off,” which requires customers to drop off plastic bags in grocery store take-back bins so they can be collected for recycling. Currently, this label has the words “deposit in store” inside a symbol of triangular arrows – giving the inaccurate impression that this plastic is capable of being recycled. A revised version of this label, shared in Nowak’s presentation, simply changes the trajectory of the arrows: instead of continuing around a triangle, they now continue around a circle.

According to Hirsch, this small change is not enough to comply with California law. First of all, a section of the California Business and Professions Code says that the pursuit arrows triangle is functionally equivalent – ​​and subject to the same truth-in-labeling restrictions – as the circular version proposed by GreenBlue. The law applies to any variation of the symbol that is “likely to be interpreted by a consumer as an implication of recyclability” – including “one or more arrows arranged in a circular pattern or around a globe”.

Another part of California law referring to Green guides requires corroboration of recyclability claims: Companies that label their products with the running arrows must provide proof that they are, in fact, widely collected for recycling and processing into new products in California. Plastic bag manufacturers have not provided such evidence and they under investigation from the California Attorney General’s Office after failing to do so.

The circular arrows “seem like exactly the kind of thing we were hoping to fight against,” said California state Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat who sponsored a landmark bill to crack down on misleading use of the symbol recycling which became law. in 2022. A a separate law passed last month will phase out plastic grocery bags offered to California shoppers at checkout. But many other types of plastic bags and thin plastic films will still be allowed.

Jan Dell, an independent chemical engineer and founder of the nonprofit The Last Beach Cleanup, would like to see drop-off labels at How2Recycle stores disappear altogether. The store deposit is “a hoax,” she told Grist via email. “All credible data, independent experts and numerous monitoring studies prove that it is impossible to collect, sort and recycle domestic post-consumer flexible plastic waste” on a significant scale.

According to an analysis carried out by Dell in 2020California only has the capacity to sort and recycle about 1% of its waste generated by plastic bags and films. Nationwide follow-up studies of Bloomberg And ABC News — using Apple (AAPL) AirTags or similar devices — have shown that plastic bags placed in store drop-off receptacles are more likely to end up in a landfill or incinerator than a recycling facility.

Allen’s Truth in Labeling Law will soon add even more specific requirements for chase arrows and other similar symbols. Starting 18 months after the state recycling agency issues a report on the recyclability of various materials, companies will have to demonstrate that products labeled as recyclable under a program without curbside recycling — as in a grocery store – are collected at a rate of 60 percent or higher, then sorted and recycled within the state. This threshold will increase to 75% in 2030.

Recent analyzes suggest that any type of plastic bag or film is unlikely to meet these high standards. In 2020, the Flexible Packaging Association said the U.S. recycling rate for post-consumer film and flexible plastic packaging was just 2 percent. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for a circular economy, believes that “almost 0 percent“soft plastics sold to consumers around the world are recycled; What little recycling does happen involves turning polyethylene film into “lower quality material applications” like plastic decking and trash bags.

“Once flexible packaging waste is generated, it becomes incredibly difficult to manage,” the foundation’s report said. As the first item on the agenda, he recommends eliminating “unnecessary” plastic products.

In response to Grist’s request for comment, a GreenBlue spokesperson said the organization is reviewing its proposal for new labels with government agencies, including the FTC and state attorneys general, “to ensure that the association of the label symbol with additional clarifying information would constitute a thorough analysis. well-founded complaint. »

“If regulators determine the label does not comply with California SB 343,” the spokesperson added, “How2Recycle will pursue a different label design.”

A spokesperson for the California attorney general’s office declined to comment on the How2Recycle labels and would not confirm whether the office had spoken with GreenBlue. The FTC did not respond to Grist’s request for comment.

Allen, the California state senator, said the plastics industry would be better off spending its time redesigning products and eliminating unnecessary packaging to comply with recent laws, instead of fiddling with labels. In addition to truth-in-labeling regulations, as of 2022, California has a extended producer responsibility law require companies to meet high recycling targets for certain types of products.

“If they have a real plan to fundamentally revamp recycling in this area, then I’m interested in hearing about it,” Allen said. “But claiming recyclability or encouraging people to do something they know they will never do in a meaningful way” – like dropping bags off at a store – “is greenwashing and a joke , and I just don’t want us to allow it.

This article was originally published in Grist has https://grist.org/accountability/proposed-new-recycling-label-how2recycle-greenblue-california/. Grist is an independent, nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling stories about climate solutions and a just future. Learn more about Grist.org

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