Carpet retailer Flooring by Nature has been told to clarify future sustainability claims after an advert was deemed as misleading.
A website advert for Flooring by Nature, seen on 25 July 2024, featured a product listing for a “Wool Carpet” with text at the top that stated, “Their eco credentials mean they provide a fantastic, sustainable alternative to synthetic carpets […]. At Flooring by Nature, we stock a wide range of environmentally friendly flooring solutions, helping our customers make eco-friendly choices […]”.
Further down the page, under the heading “Sustainable Wool Carpets to Suit your Home”, text stated, “Our sustainable wool carpets are woven from 100% natural wool, many ranges use undyed yarn so are chemical free, making them completely eco-friendly.
“As sheep require regular shearing, wool is a sustainable resource, unlike the materials used for many other carpets which contain unnatural chemicals and plastics. Wool carpets also biodegrade at the end of their lives, meaning they are not adding to the ever-growing problem of excess waste, something which we take very seriously”.
A single complainant, who understood some of the wool carpets used a plastic backing, challenged whether the following claims were misleading and could be substantiated:
1. “sustainable alternative to synthetic carpets” and “eco-friendly”;
2. “Wool carpets also biodegrade at the end of their lives”.
In response, the retailer said they had reviewed and amended their website in order to make the claims clearer and to signpost towards their Info Hub and FAQ pages. They said it was commonplace in the flooring industry for carpets to be referred to by their pile content, regardless of what type of backing they had.
A carpet’s backing was a thin layer generally made of polypropylene, polyamide or a plant-based material such as jute or cotton. They said the most popular floors in the UK were 100% man-made fibre carpets and 100% vinyl hard flooring, both made from plastic. They aimed to offer more eco-friendly or sustainable alternatives, and their carpet piles were comprised of 100% wool or natural fibre.
However, upon investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), it upheld the complaint on both counts indicating that it was likely to mislead over the statements raised.
The ASA said there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the claim “sustainable alternative to synthetic carpets”, while also adding that the claim “eco-friendly” was also deemed as misleading due to the lack of supporting materials.
The advert also suggested all of the carpets and their components, were biodegradable, but did not include sufficient information about how to dispose of them to successfully biodegrade, which was also likely to mislead.
The ASA ruled: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Floor Design Ltd t/a Flooring by Nature to ensure they held suitably robust substantiation for environmental claims, related to the full life cycle of a product where relevant.
“We also told them to ensure their ads made clear the actions consumers needed to take for the product to successfully biodegrade, and to make clear when they were only referring to part of a carpet.”
