Arizona Hefty Bag Consent Judgment: Restitution and Marketing Ban

What an individual consumer may receive cannot be determined from this judgment.

• The consent judgment sets aside $30,000 as consumer restitution. It does not set an individual payment amount or promise that any particular person will receive a payment.
• The Attorney General has sole discretion to decide which consumers are eligible and how and when any restitution is distributed.
• If money remains after distributions to eligible consumers, it goes to an Arizona consumer-protection fund rather than being divided among consumers.

• No. This consent judgment does not provide a claim form, an application method, a claim deadline, or a list of documents consumers must submit.
• It leaves the timing and method of any consumer distribution, as well as eligibility, to the State’s discretion. The judgment therefore does not state a consumer claim procedure.

• The judgment concerns Hefty transparent blue and clear plastic bags.
• It describes 13- and 30-gallon versions sold since at least 2019 that were labeled “RECYCLING.”
• The State’s allegations also concerned later clear and blue packaging and related website images. However, the judgment itself does not define a consumer group that is automatically eligible based on buying a particular product or during a particular period.

• Reynolds must pay the $30,000 consumer-restitution amount within 10 days after the consent judgment is entered by the court.
• The judgment’s effective date is the court-entry date. The court date line on the judgment is blank in the supplied PDF, so this document does not show the calendar due date.
• The companies also agreed to pay $157,000 to the State and $25,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs. Those are separate from the consumer-restitution amount.

• Reynolds may not market or sell Hefty plastic bags labeled “recycling bags” in Arizona unless the bags are accepted for recycling at a substantial majority of recycling facilities in the state.
• It also may not advertise Hefty plastic bags as widely accepted by Arizona municipal recycling programs unless a substantial majority of municipalities actually accept them for recycling.
• If Reynolds puts the clear or blue bags back on its Hefty website, it must explain that bagged recycling pickup is limited and that the bags should be used only in participating municipal programs.

• Reynolds must redesign the packaging for its transparent blue and clear bags as shown in Attachment A. The updated examples remove the contents from the bag image, replace the green banner with light blue, and add that the bags are not recyclable.
• The judgment estimates that implementing the redesign nationwide will take about 18 months and cost at least $80,000.
• Reynolds does not have to recall or remove existing products for sale in Arizona, and it does not have to contact third-party sellers or websites.

• No. The judgment says only the State may seek to enforce its terms, so it does not create an enforcement right for other people.
• It also says the judgment does not limit any private party’s ability to pursue remedies otherwise allowed by law.