Glad in court over 'ocean plastic' greenwashing allegation in Australia

Australia's competition watchdog is taking action against another plastic product manufacturer for allegedly making false claims about the origin of recycled content in its products.

The Melbourne-based Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched proceedings in the Federal Court against Sydney Olympic Park-based Clorox Australia Pty. Ltd., a unit of Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox Co.

The action emphasizes the importance of "greenwashing" claims for ACCC, since it brought the action even after Clorox stopped making the claim that its Glad-brand kitchen tidy and garbage bags included a claim the products were partly made from recycled "ocean plastic."

ACCC confirmed to Plastics News that Clorox had updated the claims on its packaging before the ACCC's investigation started.

An ACCC spokesman said the regulator could not provide any additional comment beyond a prepared statement because the matter was now before a court. The Federal Court has not yet set a date for a hearing.

The spokesman said it was premature to inquire about potential penalties. "We have to get a judgment in our favor on liability first," he told Plastics News.

Sydney-based lawyer Anthony J. Cordato, founder of Cordato Partners said in a commentary on the case: "Time will tell whether Clorox has made a wise decision to allow the Glad green claims to be tested in the Federal Court instead of agreeing on a penalty and providing a court-enforceable undertaking (acceptable to the ACCC) to avoid court proceedings."

That was the option Adelaide-based Moo Premium Foods Pty. Ltd. elected following an ACCC investigation into Moo's representations on its packaging, website, and social media pages that its yogurt tubs were made from "100% ocean plastic."

ACCC accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Moo and the company was forced to change its packaging to say the tubs were made from "ocean-bound plastic" because the recycled content was not collected from oceans.

A spokesman for Clorox said: "Glad takes seriously its obligations to package and market our products with claims that are truthful and substantiated. We are considering the ACCC's concerns raised by their court proceedings. The proceedings relate to the 50 percent ocean-bound plastic recycled bags product line only, which was discontinued by Glad in July 2023."

The ACCC statement said Clorox had allegedly made false or misleading representations about its "ocean plastic" kitchen and garbage bags, in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.

"The ACCC alleges Clorox represented that its Glad kitchen tidy and garbage bags were comprised of 50 percent recycled 'ocean plastic' collected from an ocean or sea, when that was not the case.

"The ACCC alleges these bags were instead partly made from plastic that was collected from communities in Indonesia up to 50 kilometers from a shoreline, and not from the ocean or sea."

ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said: "We allege that the headline 'ocean plastic' statements and wave imagery on the bag packaging, and the use of blue-colored bags, created the impression these bags were made from plastic waste collected from the ocean or sea, when this was not the case."

She said Clorox's alleged conduct deprived consumers of the opportunity to make informed purchasing decisions and may have put other businesses making genuine environmental claims at an unfair disadvantage.

"This action reflects our enforcement priority to take action against businesses making false or misleading environmental claims. Increasingly consumers choose the products they buy based on their environmental impact and, in doing so, they must be able to rely on the environmental claims made by businesses being accurate," Cass-Gottlieb said.

ACCC's statement said the claims were made on the Glad products between June 2021 and November 2022.

It said the wording on the kitchen tidy bags in a small font on the back of the packaging was changed to read (changes in bold): "These bags are made from 50% ocean bound recycled plastic, and have the trusted strength of Glad to hold household waste on its way to landfill. Recycling ocean bound plastic reduces plastic pollution before it enters the ocean, helping to reduce pollution in waterways, making the seas safer for marine life, and helping to put an end to irresponsible waste. Made using 50% ocean bound recycled plastic that is collected from communities with no formal waste management system within 50 km. of the shoreline."

Similar claims were made on the garbage bag packaging.

ACCC said it is seeking declarations, penalties, injunctions, an order to implement a compliance program, corrective notices, costs and other orders from the Federal Court.

Sydney-based marketing consultant Michael Field from EvettField Partners, in a commentary on the case, said: "When Clorox claimed its Glad bags were made from '50% ocean plastic' it was obviously targeting an environmentally aware consumer, who was willing to use their spending power to protect the environment."

He said research by Nielsen Insights in 2020 suggested 73 percent of consumers would change their consumption habits to reduce their impact on the environment, and 46 percent would switch to environmentally friendly products.

Field said 2022 research showed 58 percent of consumers across all generations were willing to spend more for sustainable options and almost 90 percent of Gen X consumers said they were willing to spend an extra 10 percent or more for sustainable products.