The Plastic Pollution Coalition alleged in a lawsuit that plastic is not designed to be recycled. | Tezzstock/Shutterstock
A group called the Plastic Pollution Coalition filed a false-advertising lawsuit against Danone Waters of America over its marketing of evian bottled water as “sustainable,” “natural” and “healthy.”
The lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia Superior Court, claims that because bottled water contributes to plastic pollution and contains “health-harming microplastics and other unnatural substances,” calling them sustainable, natural or healthy is “false and deceptive marketing in violation of the District of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.”
“Danone Waters of America perpetuates misleading industry narratives around plastic recycling by advertising its evian products as ‘100% recyclable’ and including ‘Made from 100% Recycled Plastic’ on product packaging,” a press release noted. “However, plastic is not designed to be recycled, and most plastic items, including plastic bottles, that are collected for recycling are never actually recycled.”
The press release alleges that “plastics collected for recycling are most often sent to landfills or incinerators, or are shipped overseas, perpetuating plastic production and its resultant plastic pollution, and environmental injustices.”
In its 2023 reporting to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Danone noted that globally, it used about 763,000 metric tons of plastic packaging, 11.9% of which was PCR. Of its total packaging, 73.8% was designed to be recyclable.
Of its total portfolio, in 2023, 46.6% of its packaging was PET bottles.
The suit is not seeking monetary damages, but rather an order declaring that Danone’s representations about its evian products are unlawful and an injunction to stop the marketing at issue.
“Companies that are among the largest plastic polluters, like Danone, are now publicly setting long-term goals to become more sustainable and move toward a circular economy, which would require a massive shift away from single-use plastic packaging,” the suit states. “Nevertheless, many of these same companies, such as Danone, continue to rely on single-use plastic packaging, which becomes plastic pollution on an immense scale …”
Danone is not the only brand to have faced lawsuits over marketing in recent years. PepsiCo has faced several, along with Coca-Cola, Reynolds Consumer Products and Colgate-Palmolive.
The Center for International Environmental Law also recently published a report on how local governments can pursue compensation for the effects of plastic pollution via legal action.