{"id":162929,"date":"2025-05-14T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=162929"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:32:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:32:42","slug":"misleading-compostability-claims-lead-to-ban-of-coffee-product-search-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/misleading-compostability-claims-lead-to-ban-of-coffee-product-search-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Misleading\u2019 compostability claims lead to ban of coffee product search ads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Online advertisements for Lavazza Coffee<\/a>\u2019s coffee pods and Dualit<\/a>\u2019s coffee bags have been banned after the Advertising Standards Authority<\/a> (ASA) found them to imply that the industrially compostable packaging can be composted at home.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Lavazza Coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A paid-for search advertisement for Lavazza Eco Caps coffee pods previously described the product as \u201ccompostable capsules for your home\u201d \u2013 yet the ASA questioned whether this statement was misleading, since the pods are only certified as industrially compostable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same vein, a paid-for search ad for Dualit coffee bags described the product as \u201ccompostable\u201d, which the ASA also challenged as misleading due to their industrial compostability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Lavazza and Dualit said they didn\u2019t intend to market the products as home-compostable. Their view was that consumers were not expected to assume from the word \u201ccompostable\u201d that the product was suitable for domestic compost; rather, this description referred to the compostable properties of the product\u2019s material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dualit specified that its bags were made of polylactic acid (PLA) derived from plants and ground coffee, and that they had been tested and proven to compost in order to make their compostability claim. Paid-for search ads offered limited space, the company explained, so its website provided further information on the product\u2019s disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lavazza also pointed to its website, which specified that the Lavazza Eco Cap product was certified for industrial composting in line with the European Standard EN13432.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, guidance from the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) specifies that, if an advertisement mentions a disposal process that is \u2018likely to differ\u2019 from the average consumer\u2019s expectation of that process, it should provide clear guidance. In this case, the ASA argues that neither Lavazza nor Dualit adequately clarified where and how their products can be disposed of \u2013 a factor that would likely influence a consumer\u2019s spending decision, it believes \u2013 and therefore violated the CAP Code<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It ruled that, when applied to a consumer product for use in the home, the phrase \u201ccompostable\u201d suggested that the pods and bags could be placed in a home composter, and was therefore \u201clikely to mislead\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA product certified to meet that standard [EN13432] was designed to break down within an industrial compost,\u201d the ASA explained. \u201cIt would therefore not necessarily break down within a domestic compost, as the composts differed in composition \u2013 for example, in temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso, a product may take longer to break down fully in a domestic compost, if at all, and toxic matter may remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe further understood that compostable plastics should not be placed within plastic recycling collections as they could contaminate plastic recycling streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdditionally, not all local Councils were able to place industrially compostable plastics, such as when collected with food or garden waste, within an industrial compost and some Councils recommended compostable plastics be placed in a waste bin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ASA asserted that the products\u2019 incompatibility with home composting, their intended disposal location, and guidance to help consumers locate their nearest disposal point \u201cwas material information that should have been made clear in the search ad, notwithstanding any space limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn any event, we considered the ad was not limited by time or space to such an extent that the information could not be provided. The ad had a character limit of 270, Lavazza had used 252. Dualit had used 132.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was, therefore, sufficient space within the ad format to correctly inform about the nature of the product and how it should be disposed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Lavazza advertisement did <\/em>link to a page that specified the different varieties of Lavazza coffee capsules available, information about the capsules\u2019 disposal was reportedly absent. Although an image of the product packaging did feature the text \u201cCOMPOSTABLE CAPSULES CERTIFIED EN13432:2002\u201d, this was considered \u201ctoo detached from the initial compostable capsules claim\u201d and \u201cunlikely\u201d to inform consumers that the capsules are unsuitable for home composting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other pages on the company website were said to clarify that the pods were compostable in an industrial facility, including the \u2018Recycling\u2019 section of their Frequently Asked Questions page and a page dedicated to the Lavazza A Modo Mio range, specifically. Yet, the ASA emphasized <\/strong>that consumers weren\u2019t guaranteed to visit those pages as part of their purchase journey and was therefore unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Dualit\u2019s advertisement linked to a webpage that listed the range of coffee bags available, but provided no further clarity on the proper disposal of the product packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individual coffee bag product listing pages on Dualit\u2019s website stated that the bags are \u201cindustrially compostable; pop the used Coffee Bag into your food waste bin and let your authorised council collection scheme do the rest\u201d. <\/em>Yet, these pages were not accessible via the paid-for advertisement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ASA added that consumers must scroll down the full length of the page to find this information, meaning they could feasibly purchase the coffee bags without reading it \u2013 and if they did, the term \u201cindustrially compostable\u201d does not adequately clarify what action they need to take, if any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dualit should also have been clearer about placing the bag in food collection bins, the ASA suggested, since some local councils do not accept compostable plastics in this waste stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altogether, the advertisements were considered to breach the following rules set by the CAP Code:<\/p>\n\n\n\n