Keurig faces class action lawsuit over recyclable pod claim
Keurig Green Mountain Inc., Burlington, Massachusetts, faces a proposed class action lawsuit accusing it of falsely labeling its coffee pods as recyclable despite being too small for material recovery facilities (MRFs) and other recycling facilities to recover, a federal judge in California ruled June 28.
According to Reuters, Keurig had argued that its labels were not misleading because they told consumers to “check locally” about whether its K-Cup products were recyclable, but U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California, has rejected that defense. Reuters reports that consumers had alleged the pods were not recyclable at any MRF or recycling facility in the country, and so the “check locally” disclaimer did not make the recyclable claim truthful, Gilliam says.
Keurig’s K-Cup pods are made from polypropylene (PP), a material that is accepted by many MRFs.
A Law360 report states that the plaintiff, Kathleen Smith, found that most MRFs aren’t equipped to work with materials as small as K-Cup pods. “Common sense would not so clearly lead a person to believe that a package labeled ‘recyclable’ is not recyclable anywhere,” Gilliam says in the article.
Get curated news on YOUR industry.
Enter your email to receive our newsletters.
![September 2019](/remote/aHR0cHM6Ly9naWVjZG4uYmxvYi5jb3JlLndpbmRvd3MubmV0L2ZpbGV1cGxvYWRzL3B1YmxpY2F0aW9ucy8xNy9pc3N1ZXMvMTAzNTU4L2NvdmVyLmpwZw.TJ8CGOQ-o_8.jpg?format=webp)
Explore the September 2019 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
Latest from Recycling Today
- Call2Recycle Canada reports battery recycling increase in 2024
- Minnesota selects Circular Action Alliance as PRO
- GIC launches automotive plastics circularity pilot
- Hydro grows postconsumer scrap use in 2024
- BlueScope’s net profit declines
- Syklo investing in circular ‘hub’ for plastic recycling, biocomposite production
- Tomra reports profitable Q4 2024
- US ferrous scrap, DRI consumption rise in 2024