ASA Guidance Update - Misleading Environmental Claims and Social Responsibility in Advertising

On 28 November, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) published key findings from its consumer research and issue-led review of what it calls ‘green disposal claims’. These are claims about how products can be disposed of in environmentally responsible ways and include terms such as ‘recyclable’/ ‘recycled’, ‘biodegradable’, ’compostable’ and ’plastic alternative’. In tandem, CAP and BCAP have updated their ‘Advertising Guidance: The environment: misleading claims and social responsibility in advertising’ to include a section on the use of green disposal claims in advertising.

The ASA’s key findings were broadly that:

• People are engaged with green disposal at home, typically in the form of regular recycling collections.
• Participants were focused on waste disposal at home and felt it was unfair to be asked to do more beyond that, such as taking recycling to specific drop-off points.
• Green claims in ads were broadly treated uncritically and this risked people having an oversimplified understanding of terms relating to waste disposal.
• There was confusion about the terms ‘compostable’ and 'biodegradable', with calls for transparency about the length of time a product that’s described as ‘biodegradable’ takes to degrade, as well as specific disposal risks.
• Participants emphasized the importance of having clearer information on disposal of product parts and where products need to be taken to be responsibly disposed.

In response, CAP and BCAP provided their updated guidance, which now includes a section 3.1 on the use of green disposal claims. This section advises advertisers to:

• Clearly qualify green disposal claims, such as “recycled” or “recyclable,” to specify which parts of a product or packaging the claim refers to.
• Avoid using absolute claims, like “100% recycled bottle”, unless all the components of the bottle, including the cap and label, are recycled.
• Provide clear information about the disposal process if it differs from the average consumer’s expectations. For example, unqualified “recyclable” claims may be understood to mean that the product is easily recyclable, which may not always be the case.
• Include information about special disposal methods that are material to consumers’ understanding of a “recyclable” claim in the ad.
• Ensure that claims are clearly qualified with information about how long it takes for a product to fully biodegrade or compost.
• Make clear any harmful by-products produced during the disposal process.
• Avoid unqualified claims that a product produces less waste than alternatives based only on part of the product’s life cycle.
• Substantiate claims with evidence that relates to the likely conditions of use for a product. For example, a claim that dog waste bags are biodegradable should be substantiated by evidence that they are biodegradable when disposed of in the manner called for on the product packaging.
• Ensure that “biodegradable” and “compostable” refer to different processes and should only be referred to as compostable if both claims can be substantiated.
• Substantiate a claim that a product is widely recycled with evidence to show that it is recycled by the majority of local authorities in the UK.

The updated guidance reflects key findings from the ASA research and principles established by ASA rulings. It seeks to support advertisers in making green disposal claims that do not mislead and sets out factors that advertisers should consider to improve the likelihood of their ads complying with the Advertising Codes.

From January 2024, the ASA will begin additional monitoring and enforcement work to tackle ads in breach of established positions already set down in rulings (e.g., ‘100% recyclable’ claims). Following a grace period, the ASA will from 1 April 2024 begin proactively investigating potentially problematic claims, with a focus on claims that: omit end of use green disposal information; suggest a product has multiple green disposal options where that is misleading; or where substantiation to back up green disposal claims is not present.

Written by Robert Turner and Hadrien Espiard