ACCC takes GLAD-bag manufacturer to court over 'ocean plastic' claims

Australia's competition watchdog has taken the manufacturer of GLAD bags to court over allegations it made false or misleading claims products were partly made of recycled ocean plastic.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a statement today it had initiated proceedings in the Federal Court against Clorox Australia.

The ACCC has claimed Clorox represented that its GLAD kitchen tidy bags and garbage bags were comprised of 50 per cent recycled ocean plastic collected from an ocean or sea "when that was not the case".

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Instead, the competition regulator alleged the bags were partly made from plastic that was collected from communities in Indonesia up to 50 kilometres from a shoreline and not from the ocean or sea.

"We allege that the headline 'ocean plastic' statements and wave imagery on the GLAD bag packaging, and the use of blue coloured bags, created the impression that these GLAD bags were made from plastic waste collected from the ocean or sea, when this was not the case," ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

"We are concerned that, by its alleged conduct, Clorox deprived consumers of the opportunity to make informed purchasing decisions, and may have put other businesses making genuine environmental claims at an unfair disadvantage.

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"This action reflects our enforcement priority to take action against businesses making false or misleading environmental claims.

"Increasingly consumers choose the products they buy based on their environmental impact, and in doing so they must be able to rely on the environmental claims made by businesses being accurate."

The ACCC said both of the products were reportedly withdrawn from supply to retailers from July 2023.

A Clorox spokesperson said GLAD "takes seriously its obligations to package and market our products with claims that are truthful and substantiated".

"We are considering the ACCC's concerns raised by their court proceedings announced (on Thursday)," the spokesperson said.

"The proceedings relate to the 50 per cent Ocean Bound Plastic Recycled Bags product line only (Kitchen Tidy small, medium and large, and Garbage large and extra large), which was discontinued by Glad in July 2023."