http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/10/ftc-staff-warns-plastic-waste-bag-marketers-their-oxodegradable

FTC Staff Warns Plastic Waste Bag Marketers That Their ?Oxodegradable?
Claims May Be Deceptive

October 21, 2014

Staff of the Federal Trade Commission has sent letters warning 15
marketers of ?oxodegradable? plastic waste bags that their
oxodegradable, oxo biodegradable, or biodegradable claims may be deceptive.

Oxodegradable plastic is made with an additive intended to cause it to
degrade in the presence of oxygen. Most waste bags are intended to be
deposited in landfills, however, where not enough oxygen likely exists
for oxodegradable bags to completely degrade in the time consumers
expect. Contrary to the marketing, therefore, these bags may be no more
biodegradable than ordinary plastic waste bags when used as intended.

?If marketers don?t have reliable scientific evidence for their claims,
they shouldn?t make them,? said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC?s
Bureau of Consumer Protection. ?Claims that products are environmentally
friendly influence buyers, so it?s important they be accurate.?

The staff notified 15 marketers that they may be deceiving consumers
based on the agency's 2012 revisions to its Guides For the Use of
Environmental Marketing Claims (the Green Guides). Based on studies
about how consumers understand biodegradable claims, the Green Guides
advise that unqualified ?degradable? or ?biodegradable? claims for items
that are customarily disposed in landfills, incinerators, and recycling
facilities are deceptive because these locations do not present
conditions in which complete decomposition will occur within one year.