When "green" claims reveal a gray area

According to the "Our Products" page on the Seventh Generation Web site, "Seventh Generation offers a complete line of non-toxic household products. All of our products are designed to work as well as their traditional counterparts, but use renewable, non-toxic, phosphate free and biodegradable ingredients, and are never tested on animals."

But in reporting a story on whether eco-friendly products meet their green claims, Consumer Reports Senior Editor Doug Podolsky discovered that Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwashing Gel—available in green apple (bottle shown) and lemon scents—is not "biodegradable," a claim that appears on the front label of the 45-ounce container. The gel contains a petroleum-based ingredient that's listed on the bottle as a "non-toxic acrylic polymer." The presence of this polymer means that the gel is not biodegradable, as the company defines the term.

Officials at the Vermont-based Seventh Generation have confirmed that the gel contains this polymer, which is not readily biodegradable, and that the company is working to remove the biodegradability claim from packaging. "Our Automatic Dishwashing Gel is the only Seventh Generation product with the ingredient in question and a biodegradable claim," wrote Chrystie Heimert, director of public relations for the company, in a June 8 e-mail to Podolsky. "It is not our intention to recall or remove the product in question from retail distribution, as it poses no health issues. We will honor our pre-existing money-back guarantee."

In an e-mail three days later, she said that new product labeling would be produced beginning June 15, and that it will take two to three months for the newly labeled products to reach retailers. She said the company had made it a priority "to identify and engage with a third party expert to conduct a thorough audit of our product line, including a comprehensive review of our claims."

Eco-labeling of dishwasher detergents is not a new issue to Seventh Generation. In the same June 8 e-mail to Podolsky, Heimert wrote, "As you've noted, on our Web site we state that we were first aware that the polymer was not readily biodegradable in 2004. Having purchased the formulation from another manufacturer, we began the task of upgrading the formulation to reflect the label claim. This took much longer than anticipated, and in 2006, we removed both the ‘Natural' and ‘Biodegradable' claims from our Automatic Dishwashing Detergent powder formulation. Unfortunately, we neglected to remove the biodegradability claim from the front of the Automatic Dishwashing Gel package. This was an oversight on our part, and one which we are grateful to you for bringing to our attention." (Read more about the dishwashing powder in "Wondering Why We Are Not Calling This Product ‘Natural' Anymore?")

"Certainly, this is bad marketing practice on the part of Seventh Generation," says Urvashi Rangan, senior scientist/policy analyst, for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. Still, "The company's products do appear to contain less harmful chemicals than conventional cleaners. Its dishwasher detergents don't contain phosphates, so they do have some environmental value."

There are no U.S. government standards for "nontoxic" or "biodegradable," according to Rangan. If you're interested in eco-labeling, don't miss Podolsky's story in the Upfront section of the September 2007 issue of Consumer Reports, on sale in August.—Steven H. Saltzman

Essential information: The Seventh Generation gel appears in our Ratings of dishwasher detergents (available to subscribers). Look for our latest report on dishwasher detergents in the August 2007 issue of Consumer Reports, on sale in July. And visit our Eco-labels.org for more information on environmental labels on a range of consumer goods, including household cleaners, food, and personal-hygiene products.