Federal Trade Commission Defines Biodegradability


A funny thing happened to me on the way to the local garbage dump. I discovered that my trash wasn%u2019t biodegradable. The trash in the back of my truck was headed for a %u201CDry Tomb%u201D landfill where my garbage will be compacted, covered with dirt, compacted some more and then layer upon layer the process will continue rendering my trash non-biodegradable. Archeologists thousands of years from now will be able to drill through these layers and just like Indiana Jones, find out how I lived by looking at what I threw away.
In a traditional %u201CDry Tomb%u201D landfill, the stuff isn%u2019t going to go away, at least not very fast. We use our dry tomb landfills to hide our trash...keep it away from our sight and noses.

I was surprised yesterday, to see an interesting tidbit about our landfills in the press. The federal government (Federal Trade Commission) has determined that since things do not biodegrade in a landfill, any item that is disposed of by tossing it in the garbage cannot be called biodegradable. Why you ask? Well, things in a typical %u201CDry Tomb%u201D landfill don%u2019t biodegrade and that would include things that normally do biodegrade...like paper, and food waste. It seems that anything that isn%u2019t burned or composted in a commercial composting site and is disposed of in a landfill....can no longer be called biodegradable.

Take PLA (Corn starch or other plant starch) plastics, most PLA plastic will end up in a landfill. Historically, 70-80 percent of plastics isn%u2019t recycled and end up in our landfills, streams and oceans. PLA can%u2019t be mixed in with the normal recycling stream with other plastics so most PLA will end up in a landfill. For proper disposal, PLA must be processed in a commercial composting site. Commercial composting sites in the U.S. are far and few between. Since most PLA will probably end up in a %u201CDry Tomb%u201D landfill under the FTC ruling it should no not be considered/labeled as biodegradable plastic.

Let%u2019s take another example, leftover food. If you dig a hole in your backyard and put your food scraps in the hole and cover it with dirt, your food scraps will biodegraded within two to three weeks. Food placed in a back yard hole would be considered biodegradable. Now, let%u2019s take that same piece of lettuce and take it to our local garbage dump...oops; it%u2019s no longer biodegradable (Assuming your landfill is the %u201CDry Tomb%u201D type).
However, if you happen to be lucky and your local landfill is a %u201CBioreactor landfill%u201D, then paper, lettuce and a lot of other garbage will biodegrade.

Bioreactor landfills are designed to cause things to biodegrade and a bioreactor landfill is designed to capture biogases and turn those gases into clean energy. There are only a few bioreactor landfills in the U.S., they cost more to build then dry tomb landfills. Part of the problem is that due to compliance with EPA and other environmental regulations it take years of paperwork and meetings to get the building permits. It should be easier to build an environmentally friendly bioreactor landfill.
Landfill operators have told me that it%u2019s easier for landfill owners to maintain status quo and as one operator told me,%u201D We have land for another 50-100 years, then it%u2019s someone else%u2019s problem.%u201D

There are exceptions to every rule, and there are things that go into a dry tomb landfill that can be considered biodegradable. Anything that can biodegrade in an anaerobic environment will biodegrade in a dry tomb landfill.

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Of Biodegradable, Composting, K-Mart and Paper Plates http://tinyurl.com/nfs457 lessons for the environment

What if I told you there was no such thing as a biodegradable product? Would it bring to mind images of products you have seen at the local store that are promoted as biodegradable? Would you think I was swimming out of the mainstream? Well according to the FTC, it just may be true if you are being marketed a biodegradable product and the seller doesn’t qualify that claim

On June 9th, 2009 the FTC announced “Actions against Kmart, Tender and Dyna-E Alleging Deceptive 'Biodegradable' Claims”. The FTCs release was picked up by many national papers (click here to see the WSJ article) and led to an internet wide chat about what it means. To boil it down and begin our review of what happened we can summarize the FTC action as acting against Kmart for the marketing of disposable paper plates as biodegradable.

From the FTC press release:

“Kmart Corp. called its American Fare brand disposable plates biodegradable, Tender Corp. called its Fresh Bath-brand moist wipes biodegradable, and Dyna-E International called its Lightload brand compressed dry towels biodegradable”

From the WSJ article By Brent Kendall, of Dow Jones Newswires:

“The charges involved the discount retailer's claim that a brand of its paper plates was biodegradable. The FTC said the paper products at issue didn't decompose quickly enough to qualify for the biodegradable label”

To some this may come as a surprise as we are often led since elementary school science to believe that paper and wood products are biodegradable. More recently some plastic have been marketed as biodegradable. But regretfully regardless of what we taught in the past, most items are not by themselves biodegradable, degradable, (oxo) degradable or (hydro) degradable in their marketed state. Rather it is when exposed to an appropriate environment they can become biodegradable or other. This exposure to an environment that creates biodegradation is referred to as composting or other processes. Let me provide you with a story I use to illustrate this to companies when I consult with them.

Rather than starting off with paper a more complex material to biodegrade we can say that most reasonable people would consider table scraps (leftover food) to be biodegradable. They would likely agree that if placed on the floor of a Brazilian rainforest and left there for three months, it is likely that when they returned the scraps would be gone. But they are likely to agree that if the same table scraps were placed on the Alaskan tundra in the middle of winter, and left alone for three months, once you returned it is reasonable that the scraps would still be there. This simple yet extreme illustration shows that the environment of disposal and not the product material has the most significant impact on the ability of something to degrade, biodegrade etc...

Since 1992 the FTC has cautioned against such unqualified claims in its GUIDES FOR THE USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MARKETING CLAIMS, commonly referred to as the FTC Green Guide. The FTC never outlawed environmental claims in its guide; rather it required that companies qualify their claims.

The general guideline provided in the FTC Green Guide:
It is deceptive to misrepresent, directly or by implication, that a product, package or service offers a general environmental benefit. Unqualified general claims of environmental benefit are difficult to interpret, and depending on their context, may convey a wide range of meanings to consumers. In many cases, such claims may convey that the product, package or service has specific and far-reaching environmental benefits.
Specific guidelines for claims of biodegradability from the FTC Green Guide:

Claims of degradability, biodegradability or photodegradability should be qualified to the extent necessary to avoid consumer deception about: (1) the product or package's ability to degrade in the environment where it is customarily disposed; and (2) the rate and extent of degradation.

These qualifications have become very relevant in light of studies conducted by William L. Rathje, Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. Dr. Rathje’s studies touched on how much or how little things that we consider to be biodegradable actually biodegrade in a landfill, what I would call the most customary method of disposal in the United States. The department of energy references his work on their kids’ page by stating:

After digging into three landfills in Arizona, California, and Illinois, Rathje found out that there are a lot of garbage myths. He and his team discovered that it takes a lot longer for paper and other organic wastes to decompose than people previously thought.

Rathje and his team found newspapers from the late 1970s that were still readable. He found “organic debris—green grass clippings, a T-bone steak with lean and fat, and five hot dogs—[that] looked even better!”

Rathje’s research suggests that for some kinds of organic garbage, biodegradation goes on for a while and then slows to a standstill. For other kinds, biodegradation never gets under way at all.

So if we make the generalizations that: most American’s dispose of their trash in landfills and biodegradation occurs very slowly in landfills if at all, it’s easier to understand very few products biodegrade when we throw them away.

Why does this matter?

Well in the age of Green marketing, if two nearly identical products, with similar prices are placed side by side it is likely that if one is labeled “biodegradable” consumers will buy it for a perceived value added benefit to the environment and society. Basically they feel they are getting something additional for free. This advantage puts pressure on other manufactures to follow suit to avoid a loss of market share and before long no one know if a product is better for an environment or not because they all say “me too”.

Are biodegradable products a myth?

Actually there are biodegradable products but in most cases they are more accurately called compostable. Modern compostable products need to be returned to an industrial compost to guarantee that they will biodegrade within a reasonable time. Many cities and waste management companies have curbside compost service. Some local services are very basic and will only accept yard waste in paper bags, while others like those in the cities of San Francisco and Oakland accept compostable plastics. Once products are composted they return back to soil that has no toxins and is suitable for growing plant life within that have a seal of approval from the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). I recommend visiting the BPI website to be more familiar with their certification logo. There are many more products claiming to be compostable every day, but very few have passed the standards of the BPI. If those products enter the composting cycle it is possible that they could lead to contamination.

Now I want to say that I have not had an opportunity to review any testing data related to the products addressed by the FTC. But it is likely that if they met the standards set by the BPI, Kmart could have simply called them compostable and pursed a BPI logo to avoid all of this. This would likely have allowed them to market them as “biodegradable in industrial composts”. Although too many this would seem wordy or of little value, to people in San Francisco and other cities that compost it means a lot, and they are the only ones likely to benefit anyway. So there was a market to reach if properly addressed.

So there you have it. More than just a lesson that Kmart has learned, I hope this is a lesson that society will learn from.

Its our world so remember to reduce, reuse and recycle (compost) responsibly where you can or the three Rs may be replaced with ban, tax and prohibit.

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What a world...what, the papers didn't disintegrate as fast as they should? I know we need to be very careful with the world we live in and take good care of it and I try hard to do that but is this pushing the pencil? Who reported them, probably a competitor whose paper products aren't a bit more biodegradable ...Somewhere along the line this country lost it's common sense.

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The government is stupid to pursue this, and Wallet Pop is stupid to give credence to the government by reporting it as if KMart did anything wrong. Everything is biodegradable to some extent, and nearly everything can be preserved if you try hard enough. Everyone knows paper is biodegradable, or would be if the government didn't archive it in airtight landfills. On the other hand, a steel automobile, which can last for a century or better with proper care (museums are full of Model T's) can also disintegrate after only a few seasons of road salt. So everything except atomic waste is biodegradable, and nearly anything can be preserved intact.
Remember, the FTC is part of the Federal Government, the same people who brought you nightmares such as NAFTA , the Gulf War, and the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 (the "Stimulus").

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I'M SO SICK OF THIS "GREEN" CRAP.........." GREEN" IS NOTHING BUT A MARKETING TOOL TO CHARGE MORE MONEY FOR THE SAME THING.......NOT A SURPRISE THAT K-MART IS INVOLVED ..THEY ARE NOW OWNED BY THE SAME COMPANY THAT OWNS SEARS AND THEY HAVE JACKED THEIR PRICES UP SO HIGH THAT THEIR SALE PRICES ARE HIGHER THAN EVERYONE ELSES REGULAR PRICES.....

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When I go to the store I don't look for "green", I look for cheap. Sometimes the cheap begins falling apart before you're done with it. Have you noticed that "green" paper stuff still comes in a nice plastic shrink wrap. So biodegradable.

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K-Mart is a real scum bum store.

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Cant we all just use plates, a bidet, or cloths for the toilet.....washable...and tap water?

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There is no such thing as a "green" paper towel. They are disposable. If you want to be green, don't buy them. I have not purchased paper towels in over 20 years and I get by just fine without them.

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When I go shopping for a product, I dont really pay any mind to whether it is biodegradable or not. Usually it means to me that it is flimsy, and I have to use twice as many to accomplish what i want done if it is biodegradable.

I want durability and practical.

If it is using the "green" standard as the advertising tactic, I purposely avoid it because I am not a follower of the movement and don't agree with the reason behind it.

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"under certain circumstances, the plate is biodegradable."
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The same can be said of plutonium.

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I love K-Mart. And the Blue Light Specials.

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...but the plate is PAPER.

I have a compost bin in my back yard. If I use a paper plate it never sees the trash can, it goes into my compost bin. But I'm only a CONSERVative. I'm not one of those left wing environMENTAList like Algore. I don't tell other people how to dispose of their trash and then do the opposite.

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