The recycling emblem program developed by that state's Department of Environmental Conservation prior to the enactment of Federal Trade Commission guidelines on environmental claims is expected to be buried shortly, according to the Paperboard Packaging Council, Washington, D.C.
Inclusion of the New York emblem (its three versions are shown here) was always voluntary. But many packaged goods marketers felt obligated to include it in addition to the FTC's chasing arrows emblem because if they didn't include it and their competition did, consumers might view the competitor in a more favorable light. Now it appears the New York emblem program will bite the dust because New York's new Director of Regulatory Reform, Bob King, sees it as an unnecessary duplication of FTC guidelines on when a package can make an environmental claim.
"We think this represents a major gain for companies to be able to do business with uniform regulations," says Jack Lewis, PPC's vp for governmental affairs. Lewis expected the process of eliminating the emblem program "to take between two and three months."
