Sponsors (14)
The bill standardizes and verifies recycled‑content and recyclability claims—improving label accuracy and simplifying nationwide compliance—but does so at the cost of compliance burdens (especially for small businesses), potential limits on reuse or fuel labeling, and reduced ability for states to maintain stricter rules.
Consumers (buyers, including middle-class families and taxpayers) get clearer, verifiable recycled‑content and recyclability claims because the Act creates standard definitions and requires third‑party certification.
Manufacturers and sellers (including small businesses and complex supply chains) can use a single federal definition plus mass‑balance accounting under third‑party certification to simplify compliance and make scalable recycled‑content claims nationwide.
Third‑party certification with auditable chain‑of‑custody and accounting increases accountability and traceability of recycled‑content claims, reducing greenwashing and improving label reliability.
Manufacturers, especially small businesses and recyclers, will face new compliance costs (certification fees, audits, labeling changes) that may raise product prices for consumers.
State and local governments lose the ability to adopt stricter or tailored rules, and enforcement shifts to the federal level, which could increase administrative burdens and costs for taxpayers and reduce local control.
Smaller recyclers and independent certification bodies may face high administrative and verification barriers to entry, reducing competition and innovation in the recycling and certification markets.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Sets federal definitions and standards for recycled‑content claims, accepts mass‑balance accounting with third‑party certification, directs FTC guidance, and preempts state/local laws.
Official title: To prohibit a person from making a misleading recycled content claim in advertising, marketing, selling, or offering for sale a product to a consumer, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 11, 2026 by Nicholas A. Langworthy · Last progress February 11, 2026
Establishes federal definitions and standards for recycled-content, recycling, and recycled-content claims and allows mass-balance accounting as an acceptable method to substantiate such claims when verified by an independent third-party certification system. Directs the Federal Trade Commission to update its Green Guides and to provide guidance recognizing mass-balance approaches, makes misleading recycled-content claims an FTC Act unfair-or-deceptive practice enforceable by the FTC, and preempts state and local laws on the same subject.