Reynolds, Walmart face lawsuit for deceptive marketing of ‘recycling’ bags

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against Lake Forest, Illinois-based Reynolds Consumer Products Inc., the parent company of the Hefty bag trademark, and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart for defrauding and deceiving Minnesota customers through the marketing of 30-gallon “recycling” bags.

The complaint alleges that Reynolds and Walmart actively deceived consumers and profited from Minnesotans at the expense of the recycling industry. According to a statement on the attorney general's website, Reynolds and Walmart sold plastic bags intended for consumers to use in curbside recycling programs. Reynolds and Walmart have made several deceptive claims about the “recycling” bags, including:

• that their bags are “perfect” for all recycling needs;
• the bags were developed for use in municipal recycling programs;
• that the bags reduce environmental impact; and
• that the bags make recycling easier and simplify sorting for municipal recycling programs.

According to a statement on the attorney general's website, these bags are not recyclable in Minnesota and render all materials placed within them unrecyclable. All recyclables that consumers place into Reynolds and Walmart’s recycling bags end up at a landfill, contrary to consumers’ intentions.

The Walmart and Reynolds’ bags in question are made from low-density polyethylene, which cannot be processed by any material recovery facility (MRF) in Minnesota, according to Ellison. If these bags end up at MRFs in Minnesota, they could cause equipment to malfunction.

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“Plastic bags are not recyclable in our programs, and we don’t accept them. But we get lots of them anyway,” says Lynn Hoffman, co-president of Eureka Recycling, a nonprofit zero-waste social enterprise recycler based in Minneapolis. “[Plastic bags] wrap around equipment, making it less effective, contaminate and decrease the value of other material like paper and cause safety hazards like fires. Additionally, when recyclable material comes into our facility contained in a plastic bag, we have to throw it away because there is too much risk of injury for our employees to rip open the bags as they come across the line. It is a common misconception that plastic bags are recyclable, which is made even worse by false marketing claims. We appreciate Attorney General Ellison for seeking accountability for these harmful practices.”

Eureka estimates that plastic bags in the recycling stream cost it approximately $75,000 per year in lost productivity and lower revenue. The recycler offers consumers tips on plastic bags on its website.

Reynolds and Walmart have made some recent changes on their websites and packaging to suggest that they are aware of the misleading nature of the claims that these bags are recyclable, the attorney general’s website states. In recent months, Reynolds revised the claims on its website to state that its Hefty recycling bags are “designed for use in participating program areas only,” which imposes the burden on the consumer to contact municipalities to confirm acceptance. Walmart also revised the claims on its packaging to no longer include that they are suitable for municipal recycling programs; however, the retailer still sells the bags that feature other misleading statements and pictures that encourage consumers to use the bags as receptacles for recyclable materials.  

“We Minnesotans love our natural environment and value our clean land, air and water. That’s why we have one of the highest recycling rates in America,” Ellison says. “Reynolds and Walmart, however, are taking advantage of Minnesotans’ good intentions to misleadingly market so-called ‘recycling’ bags to us that can’t be recycled and actually harm recycling. I’m holding Reynolds and Walmart accountable for putting their ill-gotten profits ahead of people, our environment and the law. It’s my job to protect consumers and our environment, so I cannot and will not tolerate this kind of deceptive marketing in Minnesota.”