Emerald Way, Stone Business Park, Stone, Staffordshire ST15 OSR Tel: +44 (0)1785 817421 Fax: +44 (0)1785 816357 [email protected] Friday, 24 October 2014 Dear valued customer Re: FTC letter regarding Oxo-biodegradable Plastics. We are aware that the FTC is sending out letters to various companies in the USA issuing a warning about oxo-biodegradable plastics. Wells Plastics fully supports the FTC and its aim of prohibiting companies from making unqualified environmental claims about their products. Wells Plastics is able to assist customers regarding supporting information as to the performance of Reverte® oxo-biodegradable materials. Customers may wish to use this information in relation to the functional claims they may wish to make in line with local legislation or other claims that can be made in relation to end products containing Reverte® where we have done specific work and a Wells Plastics test report exists. It is always the responsibility of the customer to ensure they are in compliance with any local legislation when making any marketing claims. It is clear that all such claims must be substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. The use of Reverte® is designed to address the problem of plastic waste that cannot realistically be collected for recycling or other forms of responsible disposal, and escapes into the open environment. The problem which Reverte® addresses has nothing to do with landfill, because if the plastic has been collected and sent to landfill it is no longer in the open environment. Reverte® products are also not suitable for composting and therefore no claims should be made in relation to this. Wells Plastics would therefore like to advise its customers that they should be very specific in all their marketing claims concerning Reverte® so that there is no doubt that the claims being made clearly refer only to products which end up in the open environment. In particular we suggest that generalized comments or words such as “biodegradable”, “degradable”, “green”, “eco-friendly” etc. should be avoided and instead the word “oxo-biodegradable” can be used but the qualification that this is in relation to plastic waste that ends up in the open environment should be included. The reason for the qualification is that W ells Plastics has competent and reliable third party scientific evidence that plastic film incorporating Reverte® will indeed completely degrade and biodegrade in the open environment. Reverte® films have been tested and shown to comply with ASTM D6954-04 (2013) which is the Standard Guide for Exposing and Testing Plastics that Degrade in the Environment by a Combination of Oxidation and Biodegradation. In view of the recent FTC correspondence we would like to suggest that all Reverte® customers should review and if necessary amend all marketing material and claims where these might be construed as falling outside of the guidelines set out above. www.oxobioplast.com www.reverteplastics.com