Last Summer, a Florida brewery made national headlines by
announcing an innovation: biodegradable six-pack rings. The rings,
co-developed by the brewery and a New York advertising agency, are
made from wheat and barley waste from the brewing process and are
said to be safe for marine life to eat. An initial batch of
rings was made available in early 2017, and more large-scale
production and distribution is in the works.
Brewers should be mindful that environmental or
"green" marketing claims like the one made above by the
Florida brewery are subject to regulation by federal and state
law. Federal regulations, for example, require that
a company have "competent and reliable scientific evidence
that [its product] will completely break down and return to nature
within a reasonably short period of time after customary
disposal" before making an unqualified claim that its
product is biodegradable. State laws governing green
marketing claims tend to either
