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In the bike industry, there has been a movement towards branding certain chemical components (chain lubes, greases, etc.) as "biodegradeable" and/or "nontoxic". One example is this white lightning grease. Essentially all of these products are proprietary, and so it's not possible to independently verify whether it stands up to these claims.

What is the legal requirement for these companies to label products as "biodegradeable" or "nontoxic"?

Edit: ack, I should've been clearer: I am in the US, and am inquiring specifically about US law.

Lucas Myers
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The claims must not be misleading or deceptive

The Competition and Consumer Act prohibits deceptive and misleading conduct in trade or commerce and creates both a tort-like avenue of recovery (including for pure economic loss) and an offence subject to multi-million dollar fines.

Specifically for environmental claims, the claims must be “true and accurate”, be of material environmental benefit (so a 1% reduction in emissions does not support a claim of “reduced emissions”), be supported by evidence, not hide important information, explain any conditions, not be overly broad, and use clear plain English.

So “biodegradable” means that all of the product, including the packaging (unless explicitly excluded) breaks down naturally in the environment without human intervention into harmless chemicals of insignificant size.

“Toxic” when used scientifically means “this stuff will kill you”, but in everyday usage, it means “this stuff will hurt you” - it’s the second definition that you must be able to support. Reference to the Safety Data Sheet should show that it is “non-hazardous” to support a claim of non-toxic. Additionally, if it’s non-toxic to humans but will kill your cat stone dead, you can’t make the claim without being very, very clear about that.

The SDS for Crystal Grease would seem to support a claim of non-toxic. The claim of biodegradability is more problematic as only the organic part of the product is biodegradable: how much isn’t?

Dale M
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