Paying a penalty for a false claim

Dubai: Not all bags are recyclable, and not all recyclable bags are biodegradable. Co-op Italia, a popular cooperative retail company in Italy, discovered this the hard way when it launched its new, so-called "100 per cent degradable" shopping bags in June 2005.

A Co-op Italia advertisement in the country's leading newspapers caught the attention of local environmental associations.

It portrayed the bag as an eco-friendly product, as it contained an additive called EPI-TDPA, which when mixed with traditional polyethylene, claimed to make it completely degradable.

Ambitious

Such an ambitious statement had to be backed up. A lengthy investigation began. In January 2006 the Communications Regulatory Authority passed the verdict: Co-op Italia's advertisements led consumers to believe the bags benefited nature, when in fact they were not completely eco-friendly.

Co-op Italia had to pay a penalty of 31,100 euro (Dh171,888). Needless to say, the reign of their degradable plastic bag was short-lived.