Research note
The FTC Green Guides explain how marketers should substantiate and qualify environmental claims. Learning those source-backed rules can help you ask better questions before you buy.
The FTC Green Guides — federal guidance for environmental marketing claims — say an unqualified degradable claim requires that an item “completely break down and return to nature… within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal.” That period is defined: one year.
“Unqualified degradable claims for items that are customarily disposed in landfills, incinerators, and recycling facilities are deceptive because these locations do not present conditions in which complete decomposition will occur within one year.”
Read that again with a household product in mind. If the thing goes in your normal bin, and your normal bin goes to a landfill, then an unqualified “biodegradable” on the label is — in the guidance’s own word — deceptive. Not misleading-ish. Deceptive.
A product may be called recyclable without qualification when recycling facilities are available to a “substantial majority” of consumers where it is sold. The Guides define substantial majority as at least 60 percent.
Below that market-availability threshold, the claim is supposed to be qualified — “this product may not be recyclable in your area”, or stronger wording where facilities are rare. That national marketing test and your local disposal decision are separate: even a properly qualified claim does not mean your own program accepts the item.
General environmental benefit claims. The FTC advises against making them unqualified, because they convey a wide range of meanings and are highly unlikely to be substantiable. On their own they carry no defined content.
The phrase alone does not identify an environmental benefit, test method, ingredient boundary, or disposal outcome. Ask what the seller means and what evidence supports that narrower claim.
These phrases do not tell you which substances, exposures, doses, or test conditions were assessed. Look for the specific hazard or ingredient criterion rather than treating the phrase as a complete safety determination.
Imagery is not certification. Any brand can print a leaf. A recycling symbol identifies the plastic resin type — it does not promise your council collects it.
A certification is only worth something if it names a standard and publishes a list you can search. EPA Safer Choice does both — a government programme with a free public database of certified cleaning and household products.
Look the product up rather than trusting the box. And note EPA’s own caveat: listing “does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.” It means the ingredients met named criteria — not that the product is best, or right for you.
Search EPA Safer Choice“Certified to NSF/ANSI 53” is checkable. “Eco-certified” is not. A real mark names the standard and the body behind it.
If you cannot look the exact model up in a registry the brand does not control, the logo is decoration.
Certification is specific. Certified for one contaminant is not certified for all. Certified packaging is not a certified product.
One improvement can hide a larger cost. Recycled packaging around a product designed to be thrown away is still a product designed to be thrown away.
A broad claim can create an expectation the label never defines. When the package does not name the material, standard, test, or disposal condition, there is no specific result for a buyer to verify.
Checking a claim before you buy is duller than switching brands hopefully. It also works better, and it costs nothing.
Last reviewed 25 July 2026. The Green Guides are FTC guidance on how existing law applies to environmental marketing; they are not themselves a criminal statute, and enforcement is case by case. Nothing here is legal advice.
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