1. United States
2. Wisc.
3. Letter

When you buy a product that says "made with recycled content," you expect that amount recycled material to actually be in it. That's not always the case. Some companies are using credit schemes and accounting gimmicks to inflate recycled content claims. They buy paper credits from somewhere else in the supply chain, run the numbers through a system called "mass balance" or "book-and-claim" accounting, and slap a recycled content label on a product made almost entirely from virgin plastic. These fake claims hurt everyone. Consumers are misled. Companies that actually invest in using recycled material are undercut by competitors who just buy credits. And recycled content mandates, the backbone of California's recycling strategy, lose their teeth when compliance can be faked on paper. AB 2253 (Boerner) fixes this. The bill requires that recycled content claims reflect recycled material actually used in the product line. No credits. No shady forms of mass balance accounting. No gimmicks. If a company says recycled content, recycled material has to be used in the creation of the product. That shouldn't be controversial.