A packaging consultant challenges claims by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign that his branded plastic straws are recyclable.
The president made headlines earlier this month when his campaign revealed the opportunity for consumers to purchase a 10-pack of plastic straws bearing Trump’s name for $ 15.
Now Victor Bell, founder and managing director of Environmental Packaging International of Jamestown, Rhode Island, is rejecting the campaign’s claim that the straws are recyclable.
He calls the description of recycling “misleading” and is using Federal Trade Commission regulations to reinforce his argument.
The FTC Green Guides establish specific criteria that allow products to claim recyclability.
Those guidelines, in part, require that facilities capable of recycling the product are available to at least 60 percent of the customers or consumers where the product is sold.
The guidelines also state that items “should not be marked as recyclable unless they can be collected, separated, or recovered from the waste stream through an established recycling program for reuse or use in the manufacture or assembly of another item.”
Bell has sent a letter to the FTC, alleging that “Trump’s marketing claims of straw recyclability hoax under the US Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides and requests that additional action be taken.”
The Trump campaign has politicized straws with this product description: “Liberal paper straws don’t work. STAY WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today,” says a website that sells the straws.
According to Bell, that’s one of two times the campaign falsely claims it is recyclable.
The vignettes describing the laser etched straws also state that they are “reusable and recyclable.”
“You obviously know why he’s doing this, slapping the liberals,” Bell said.
A key reason for writing the letter is education for all, he said.
“Obviously, the president can’t even get it right or his team, following the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guidelines or laws to convince people what is and is not recyclable,” he said.
“Any straw is not recyclable and people have to be careful what they say is recyclable and this is a good example of that,” said Bell.
The packaging and recycling consultant indicates that the straws may be made of resin that is “technically recyclable” but its size and shape make it essentially impossible.
This is because sorting equipment at material recovery facilities is not designed to handle small items, such as straws or lids that are not on bottles, for example.
Smaller items generally fall through openings in equipment and end up as garbage sent to landfills along with other so-called “fines.”
MRF equipment is designed to effectively handle larger items such as metal and plastic containers, corrugated boxes, and paper.
In his letter requesting action, Bell indicates that the Green Guides have this to say: “An item that is made from recyclable material, but, due to its shape, size or other attribute, is not accepted into recycling programs, should not be marketed as recyclable. “
Bell indicated that the FTC is not required to respond to its letter and that it awaits a response.
“Don’t tell people that something is recyclable when it is not,” he said.