California AG Sues Water Bottle Companies over Biodegradability Claims

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris filed a “greenwashing” lawsuit on Wednesday against three companies alleged to have made false and misleading claims by marketing plastic water bottles as “100 percent biodegradable and recyclable.” It is illegal under California law to label a plastic food or beverage container as biodegradable. Plastic takes thousands of years to biodegrade and may never do so in a landfill, and Wednesday’s lawsuit is the first government action to enforce the state’s landmark environmental marketing law, according to Harris.