Bottle manufacturer ENSO Plastics and drinks companies Aquamantra and Balance Water are being sued by the California attorney general’s office over claims that they misled customers by falsely marketing water bottles as biodegradable, the Huffington Post reports.
ENSO is accused of falsely claiming that its bottles would biodegrade in less than five years, leaving behind no harmful residues. Aquamantra and Balance Water, also named in the suit, use ENSO bottles to package their drinks.
In 2008, California made it illegal to claim a plastic food or drink container was biodegradable when such products can take,what the Huffington Post calls “thousands of years to break down”.
ENSO released a statement saying that it stands behind its product and its claims, calling its plastic bottles “a huge step in the right direction” towards solving the plastic pollution issues the world faces.
In September environmental practice lawyer Elizabeth Poole wrote a column for Environmental Leader on upcoming changes to the Federal Trade Commission’s “Green Guides.”
Under the revised guides, claims that a product will degrade would only be lawful if the entire item will break down and return to nature within one year after disposal, says Poole.