Solo Cup Challenges Advertising Claims For Dispoz-O ‘Enviroware’ Products

New York, NY – April 2, 2009 – The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has recommended that Dispoz-O, the maker of “Enviroware” plastic tableware, discontinue certain environmental claims for the products. NAD determined that the advertiser did provide reasonable support for certain claims.

NAD, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum, examined advertising for “Enviroware” products, following a challenge by Solo Cup Company, a competing maker of disposable tableware.

Claims at issue included:

• “Enviroware is designed to interact with micro-organisms present in landfills, composters, and almost everywhere in nature including oceans, lakes and forests. These micro-organisms metabolize the molecular structure of the plastic, breaking it down into soil.”
• “Enviroware is formulated to degrade in months when buried or discarded in a landfill”
•  “Enviroware does not require oxygen and will begin the degradation process as early as 9 months after being placed in the landfill.”
• “Enviroware will degrade in as little as 9 months.”
• “Enviroware cutlery, straws, hinged containers, plates, bowls and trays are 100% biodegradable and come with a certificate of biodegradability.”
• “Degraded by Nature.”

The advertiser asserted that it has amended its marketing materials to modify claims related to the length of time required for the biodegration of Enviroware products to include a general timeframe of 9 months to 5 years. Further, the advertiser said, it has amended advertising to consistently state that Enviroware products biodegrade into water, carbon dioxide/methane gas, and organic solids.

In its decision, NAD noted the advertiser did not establish, by means of competent and reliable scientific evidence that its products will completely break down and return to nature within a reasonable short period of time after customary disposal.  

Accordingly, NAD recommended the following claims be discontinued:

• “Enviroware is formulated to degrade in months when buried or discarded in a landfill”
• “Enviroware cutlery, straws, hinged containers, plates, bowls and trays are 100% biodegradable and come with a certificate of biodegradability.”

NAD noted further that the evidence did not establish that the products are 100% degradable in landfill conditions and that a “certification” of a product or additive as biodegradable by a supplier is not a substitute for competent and reliable scientific evidence that an advertiser must possess in order to substantiate environmental claims in its marketing and advertising. 

Further, NAD recommended that any claims about the expected time frame of degradation be significantly qualified to indicate the limited nature of the conditions tested. 

NAD noted that it appreciates the advertiser’s interest in developing technology and the utilization of degradable plastics in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of plastics in the post-consumer waste stream. 

NAD noted, as well, that on the basis of its testing, the advertiser provided reasonable support for the claim that “Enviroware is designed to interact with micro-organisms present in landfills, composters, and almost everywhere in nature including oceans, lakes and forests. These micro-organisms metabolize the molecular structure of the plastic, breaking it down into soil.” 

Dispoz-O, in its advertiser’s statement, said the company accepts “NAD’s decision and will discontinue the two advertising statements per your recommendation until such time that our actual products complete the clinical and/or on-site testing and we can make a qualified claim based on these tests in accordance with the parameters of the NAD decision.”