These associations, including the CLCV, reported to the European authorities “misleading commercial claims on the recyclability of major brand water bottles”.
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Several consumer associations, including the CLCV in France, filed an administrative complaint on Tuesday, November 7 against the main manufacturers of plastic bottles for greenwashing with the European consumer protection authorities, announced the CLCV in a press release sent to franceinfo. In 2021, the CLCV had already filed a complaint against Volvic for greenwashing and “this complaint made it possible to initiate action at European level”explains the consumer protection association.
The European Consumer Organization (Beuc), the European Consumer Organization and its member organizations from 13 countries* have reported to European authorities “misleading marketing claims about the recyclability of water bottles from major brands, such as Coca-Cola HBC, Danone and Nestlé Waters”explains the press release.
Greenwashing practices?
According to their analysis, “such allegations do not comply with European Union rules”. On October 15, 2021, the CLCV “had already identified the ‘100% recyclable’ claim on Volvic brand bottles” and had “filed a complaint for deceptive commercial practices before the Paris judicial court”. This complaint to the European Commission should allow an investigation to be carried out and these greenwashing practices by water manufacturers to be banned.
The consumer association points out that plastic water bottles are never 100% recycled, if only because European legislation prohibits the recycling of caps, not to mention the label, which is also rarely recycled. and virgin plastic which lives up to its name and which very often is added to so-called recycled bottles. As for collection infrastructures and sorting processes, they are still not sufficiently efficient, the recycling rate is only 55% in Europe. Only 30% of water bottles are used to make a new bottle.
*Note: The BEUC members participating in this action are: VKI (Austria); Асоциация Активни потребители (Bulgaria); CLCV (France); Kuluttajaliitto – Konsumentförbundet (Finland); EKPIZO and KEPKA (Greece); Tudatos Vásárlók Egyesülete (Hungary); Altroconsumo (Italy); Consumentenbond (Netherlands); DECO (Portugal), Spoločnosť ochrany spotrebiteľov (SOS)
(Slovakia); Zveza potrošnikov Slovenije (Slovenia); OCU (Spain).