Insights by Connor Fraser (Napoli Student Fellow in Environmental Law & Policy, Guarini Center)

Reduce, Reuse, and Reinvigorate the FTC’s Green Guides

Student Blog Series

You may not think twice about tossing a plastic bottle in a blue recycling bin, but there’s more to the “recyclable” label than meets the consumer’s eye. Behind that label is a complex set of guidelines—the FTC’s Green Guides—that should, but often don’t, guide when and how marketers can tell consumers that their products are recyclable, and they are finally being reviewed after a decade without updates.

What’s in a Label? The FTC’s Green Guides in Context

The Federal Trade Commission is consider updating its Green Guides for the first time on over a decade; this comes at a crucial time, as research and litigation have revealed ambiguities in the Guides’ definitions of “recyclable” and other environmental labels, leading to consumer confusion. This brief explains what the Green Guides contain, how the FTC plans to reevaluate them, the interplay between the Guides and state consumer protection laws, and how this interplay affects regulation of “recyclable” labels.

Plastics in the Courtroom: The Evolution of Plastics Litigation

Student Blog Series

This post introduces the State Impact Center and Guarini’s new Plastics Litigation Tracker, which tracks state and federal cases addressing plastics, and discusses four major trends evident in plastics litigation thus far.