François Carlier, general delegate of the CLCV, recalled that tap water is “the most ecological thing because it is delivered 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, to your home, without packaging.” .
“Tell the consumer 100% recyclable”while 60% of bottles will be recycled by volume, “It seems completely misleading to us.”denounced Tuesday, November 7 on franceinfo François Carlier, general delegate of the national association for the defense of consumers and users CLCV.
Several consumer associations filed an administrative complaint on Tuesday, November 7 against the main manufacturers of plastic bottles for “greenwashing” with the European consumer protection authorities (CPC). Associations criticize manufacturers for misusing the terms 100% recyclable or 100% recycled. “The demon of marketing is obviously going too far”, he said. 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.
franceinfo: What do you criticize the manufacturers of mineral water?
François Carlier: Mineral water bottles pose an ecological problem because they contain plastic. There is an impact of matter on the climate, sometimes from pollution of nature. Faced with this, companies have tried to make recycling efforts. In itself, that’s good. They want to communicate about these efforts, why not. But the demon of marketing is obviously going too far, it is presenting it in an absolute way, 100% recyclable, 100% recycled. As if, in fact, there was no longer an ecological impact at all, as if they were almost completely green products. It’s wrong.
Do you think it is impossible for the bottle to be 100% recyclable?
Yes, it is very questionable if we take 100% recyclable. In a bottle of mineral water, the cap and the label are not recyclable. First of all, it can’t be 100%. Then, when we display this to the consumer, even on the rest of the bottle, we forget to tell them that in practice, there are approximately 55 to 60% of the volumes which are actually recycled because not everything is not collected among the bottles. So, telling the consumer 100% recyclable, even if we put aside the cap and the label without specifying to them that in reality, in the end, it will only be 60% which will be recycled in volume, that seems completely right to us. misleading and that’s why we rely on a complaint.
Some brands use small green visuals, mountains for example, to identify their products as good for the planet. Does that annoy you?
Yes. Ultimately, it is almost an organic product, totally ecological. In fact, there is this kind of idea that they are trying to convey, that roughly speaking, we are entering into the circular economy. All plastic, in fact, will be constantly reused. It will never produce any ecological impact. But that is false. You can choose to drink mineral water, but fundamentally, this poses an ecological problem.
We can reduce this ecological problem and we cannot make it disappear. There are mineral water brands that do not make this type of claim. And besides that, there are others who call themselves 100% green. They are not at all. As a result, they could gain an advantage over their competitors. We see a market that is becoming poorly organized and that is becoming fundamentally misleading.
What do you expect from this complaint?
18 months ago, at the national level, the CLCV filed a complaint with the Paris judicial court against Volvic for deception. The judge will rule. Then, we said to ourselves that there was a real global problem at the European level and so we filed a complaint with the CPC (Consumer Protection Cooperation) which is in fact the Fraud Repression at the European level. We hope that they will investigate, possibly take sanctions and urge professionals to change. It is a sort of administrative complaint for the European Fraud Repression to act.
Should cardboard bottles be made compulsory, for example?
We can go towards that. We understand that people may choose mineral water rather than tap water. We must always remember that tap water is truly the most ecological thing because it is delivered seven days a week, 24 hours a day to your home, without packaging. You should try to tend towards tap water.