Made with thirty percent post-consumer recycled content is defensible, because it is measurable and documented.
Eco-friendly is not, because there is no standard you can demonstrate you met.
That difference is the entire subject.
Short answer: a sustainability claim holds up when it names an external standard, states a documented figure, and qualifies what is actually true of the finished pack. It fails when it makes a broad environmental promise with nothing specific behind it. The substantiation has to exist before the claim is printed, not after it is challenged.
Eco-friendly. Green. Planet-friendly. Sustainable. Ocean-friendly.
None of these mean anything specific, which is precisely the problem. A general environmental benefit claim implies that a product is better across every environmental dimension, and almost nothing is. The FTC's Green Guides advise marketers against making unqualified general environmental benefit claims for this reason, and recommend qualifying claims clearly and prominently to the specific benefit being claimed.
The regulator is one route. In practice the faster route has been private litigation. The argument is simple and does not require an agency to act: customers paid a premium for a product on the basis of an environmental representation, and the representation was not substantiated.
In Canada, amendments to the Competition Act introduced in 2024 added specific provisions on environmental claims, requiring that claims about a product's environmental benefits be supported by adequate and proper testing, and that broader business-level environmental claims be substantiated in accordance with an internationally recognised methodology.
The practical effect for a brand selling across North America is that the substantiation has to exist before the claim is printed.
The pattern in every one of the first four: an external standard, a documented number, and a qualification that tells the customer what is actually true.
This is the failure that catches the most brands, and it catches sophisticated ones.
A supplier provides a certificate. The certificate is genuine. The material genuinely meets the standard. The brand then prints a claim describing the finished pack, and the finished pack contains things the certificate never covered.
Certified compostable board in a carton with a plastic window is not a compostable carton.
Certified recycled fibre with a foil stamp is not a recyclable carton.
An all-polypropylene bottle with a conventional pump is not a mono-material pack.
Check the claim against what the customer will physically hold, including liners, coatings, adhesives, closures, springs, and windows. Then check it against what the customer is realistically able to do with it in the place they live.
Some jurisdictions also restrict the use of recycling symbols independently of the words around them. California's rules on recyclability labelling are the most cited example. Symbol usage should be reviewed alongside the copy, not separately.
Ask for this before artwork is released, not after a claim is challenged.
If a supplier cannot produce these, that is your answer about the claim. It is usually also your answer about the supplier.
Keep the pack on file with the artwork approval, not in a separate folder someone has to go looking for. The moment you need it is the moment nobody has time to find it.
Our work with Omy Laboratoires used FSC-certified papers, vegetable oil-based inks, and water-based coatings, all documented, which is what makes those claims printable rather than aspirational.
Write the claim you want. Then ask what document proves it, who issued that document, and whether it covers the finished pack or one part of it.
If you can answer all three, print it. If you cannot answer any one of them, either get the document or change the wording.
Boring and defensible beats warm and challengeable. Considerably more so in a deposition than on a carton. If you are still choosing materials, the three route comparison covers what each one lets you claim.
Not safely as an unqualified claim. General environmental benefit claims imply broad superiority that is difficult to substantiate, and guidance advises against making them without clear qualification. Replace it with the specific, documented benefit you can actually prove.
Two things. The whole item has to be recyclable rather than one component, and recycling facilities have to be genuinely available to customers where the product is sold. Where availability is limited, the claim needs qualifying rather than dropping.
Naming the standard, naming the conditions, and the entire item meeting it. Industrial and home composting are different claims with different requirements, and treating them as interchangeable is a common source of exposure.
Only for what the certificate covers. Certificates apply to materials or components. Your claim applies to the finished pack the customer holds. Check the claim against the assembled product, including every liner, coating, and closure.
This is not legal advice. It is sourcing and specification guidance intended to help you ask better questions of your suppliers and your own counsel. Regulatory requirements vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Have your claims reviewed by qualified counsel before they go to print.
We help beauty, wellness and lifestyle brands line up the substantiation behind what they want to say, so the claim on the carton matches the documents on file.
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