Why environmental marketing needs a rebrand
How the recycling symbol's popularity diluted its power
If the Environmental Protection Agency has its way, it could one day be harder for companies to slap the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol on a product that isn’t easily recyclable.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in April, the EPA called for improvements to the consistency of recyclable labeling. The agency said about 23% of global plastic waste was either improperly disposed of, burned, or leaked into the environment as of 2019, and one of several reasons is confusion about the symbol, one of the most recognizable in the world.
The recycling “chasing arrows” were designed in 1970 by Gary Anderson, then a senior at the University of Southern California, and his design is in the public domain. But like a verified badge that doesn’t actually verify anything, the symbol’s popularity has diluted its power. Regulators hope to change that.
“Recycling claims can be confusing because there’s so many different types of plastic and so many different materials and formats that consumers bring into their homes,” said Anthony Tusino, senior program officer for plastic policy advocacy at the World Wildlife Fund, during an FTC workshop last week in Washington, D.C., about recycling and advertising.
In its letter, the EPA highlighted resin identification codes, or RIC, a number used to indicate the type of plastic an item is made from. An RIC is sometimes shown on a product alongside the recycling symbol, and it confuses consumers.
“Categorizing plastics by resin identification code coupled with chasing arrow symbols does not accurately represent recyclability as many plastics do not have end markets and are not financially viable to recycle,” the EPA said.
Items like bottles are usually easily recycled, but other plastic products with an RIC from 3-7 often end up in a landfill. Well-meaning consumers sometimes “wishcycle,” or dispose of items as if they were recyclable even though they aren’t.
“If they see anything that appears to be a recycling symbol, they think that, ok, this can go in and they throw it in the recycling bin,” said Anne Germain, senior vice president of regulatory affairs for the National Waste & Recycling Association.
Labeling is so important because it’s “the way that most people get their information about what can be recycled,” she said.
The trend toward eco-consciousness has coincided with growth in “green” marketing. The annual share of sustainability-marketed products has risen from 13.7% in 2015 to 17.3% in 2022, according to the Sustainable Market Share Index from the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, and the demographics most likely to buy sustainability-marketed products are Millennial, upper income, college educated, and urban consumers.
“Greenwashing,” the term for deceptive claims about a product’s environmental impact, isn’t new. The plastics industry has been engaged in “a decades-long misinformation campaign to convince Americans that all plastic packaging is recyclable,” Martin Bourque, executive director of the Ecology Center, told Popular Science, but consumers are getting savvier. On Tuesday, a consumer class action lawsuit was filed against Delta Air Lines, accusing the company of falsely claiming it’s the “first carbon-neutral airline” (the company told the Associated Press the suit was “without legal merit”).
The FTC’s rules around sustainability marketing, known as the “Green Guides,” were last updated in 2012. The guides state that marketers shouldn’t make “broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like ‘green’ or ‘eco-friendly,’” and that they should qualify their claims with “clear, prominent, and specific” environmental benefits.
The EPA recommended the FTC strengthen labeling requirements by increasing the use of third-party certification to verify environmental claims and limiting recyclable markings to materials that can be sold for more than the cost of disposal.
The agency pointed to California, which passed its own “Truth in Recycling” legislation about environmental advertising in 2021 to restrict the use of the recycling symbol to products that meet specific criteria. Maryland and Minnesota have also passed laws related to degradable claims, per the EPA.
As states chart their own rules for suitability marketing, Uncle Sam could be the one to set the standard. The EPA said it believes products with labeling making unqualified claims of recyclability should be 100% recyclable, and that recycling standards need to be more clear.
“The bar needs to be high to make a recyclable claim and labels should reduce, not contribute to consumer confusion,” the agency said.
To find out what’s recyclable in your community, contact your local recycling agency.
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