Conwed Plastics LLC

With green packaging’s rising popularity, many products have been guilty of “greenwashing” — that is, making green marketing claims that are dubious at best and outright false at worst. Claims of biodegradability are particularly suspect and have been at the center of many deceptive green marketing disputes.

Manatt’s advertising lawyers entered the fray when, on behalf of Conwed Plastics LLC, we successfully challenged a number of environmental claims by MasterNet for its plastic netting packaging products. Among them were claims that MasterNet’s products are biodegradable, recyclable and have “saved countless trees from destruction.” We argued before the National Advertising Division (NAD) that MasterNet did not meet the Federal Trade Commission's Green Guides standards for such claims. To claim a product or package is biodegradable, the FTC requires reliable scientific evidence that the entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time. Most plastic packaging products, however, typically end up in a landfill. The NAD found that MasterNet's evidence was insufficient to support the biodegradability claims under the FTC standard and recommended that they be discontinued. The NAD also recommended, and MasterNet agreed, to discontinue the claim that its products are recyclable and save countless trees from destruction.