Several years ago, the ACCC lost a similar case against Woolworths, which had labelled its picnicware as “biodegradable and compostable” with eco-friendly imagery. However, the court ruled that the claims were not misleading because, although the picnicware could not be composted at home, it was suitable for industrial composting systems – a detail not specified on the packaging.

The problem is that most vague and unhelpful claims aren’t technically breaking the law. A claim that a product is “eco” or “greener” is so vague that it’s hard to prove that it is misleading customers.

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Even worse is where a business uses its marketing to hide the truth. A mining company boasting on social media that uses “clean tech” conveniently omits information about the environmental harms of other parts of its business.

This is a problem not just for customers, but for businesses trying to do the right thing. There are companies in Australia offering genuinely sustainable products and services but it’s far too difficult to tell the difference between the good options and those stretching the green truth.

This is why we need to reform our consumer laws to require better and more useful marketing and information.

Helpfully, we can learn from new laws internationally. The European Union is in the process of banning generic environmental claims like “eco”, “green” or “gentle on the environment”. These claims are meaningless, and they need to go. Australia should also ban confusing and unhelpful claims.

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More crucial, perhaps, are laws that ban omissions or hiding important information. These laws could confront companies that advertise a genuinely sustainable product line while concealing their environmentally harmful practices elsewhere.

Additionally, all environmental claims should be backed by strong, credible, and current evidence. This is especially crucial for future-oriented claims, such as companies advertising themselves as plastic-free or carbon-neutral by a certain date.

Stopping bad green claims is only half the battle. We also need to help people evaluate products on key environmental factors, such as durability and repairability. For example, in France, products like laptops, phones and washing machines must display a score that shows shoppers how they stack up against others in terms of spare parts availability and the duration of software updates.

Australians deserve this kind of basic information when shopping for big purchases. The federal government could invest, like France has, in a mandatory labelling system that shows how long products will last. This would allow you to compare the durability of items like washing machines, much like you currently compare their energy and water efficiency with star ratings.

In Australia, it is not easy being green. There are too many confusing environmental claims and the limited powers of our regulators make it harder to identify truly ethical companies. New laws that eliminate poor quality claims and help us find better products would be good for the environment but also good for budgets, helping us find options that last longer and are easier to repair.

Erin Turner is chief executive of the Consumer Policy Research Centre. Gerard Brody is the chair of the Consumers’ Federation of Australia.

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