A new report exposes retailers’ failure to protect consumers from toxic chemicals and plastics

A new report released today by Toxic-Free Future reveals that most of the largest retailers in the United States and Canada are failing to protect customers from toxic chemicals and harmful plastics found in the products and packaging sold on store shelves.

The 2024 Retailer Report Card finds that the average grade for retailers is a D+, with retailers earning failing F grades, placing them in the report’s Toxic Hall of Shame. “With PFAS in our drinking water and toxins found in black plastic spatulas, it is shocking how little retailers are doing to help solve this health crisis linked to hazardous chemicals and plastics in consumer products,” said Cheri Peele, co-author of the 2024 Retailer Report Card and senior project manager for Toxic-Free Future. “Retailers must require ingredient transparency, ban the most hazardous chemicals and plastics in products and packaging, and invest in safer solutions.”

Additional Highlights from the 2024 Retailer Report Card:
● Four companies show leadership towards safer products: Apple, Sephora, Target, and Walmart are leading the charge toward safer solutions, earning an A- or higher, with policies in place to ban the worst chemicals and plastics and invest in safer alternatives, proving that it is possible.
● Minimal progress on safer solutions: 80% of retailers failed to implement policies that ensure safer alternatives to harmful chemicals and plastics – a critical component to achieve a safer marketplace.
● Lack of transparency: More than half of the retailers evaluated (54%) do not ask their suppliers to disclose the chemical ingredients used in their products. Without full transparency, it is impossible to assess the safety of chemicals in products sold to consumers.
● Toxic-Free Future’s new roadmap, The Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace, provides an enhanced grading system that gives a clear roadmap for retailers to follow to protect public health by selling safer products and packaging without harmful plastics and chemicals.

Mike Schade, co-author of the 2024 Retailer Report Card and director of Toxic-Free Future’s Mind the Store program, emphasized that retailers must go beyond simply banning toxic chemicals to ensure safer replacements for consumers, communities, and workers. Apple, Sephora, Target, and Walmart are setting a strong standard, and more retailers should follow their lead.

Some companies, including Amazon, Office Depot, Staples, Target, and Walmart are getting credit in the Retailer Report Card for selling private-label products that are EPA Safer Choice certified. This certification is one of the only third-party certifications that fully evaluate the hazards of all chemical ingredients, ensuring chemicals are verifiably safer.

Fertility doctor Lora Shahine is concerned about the exposure to toxic chemicals and plastics in everyday products, particularly for women. Research shows these substances can disrupt hormones, impact fertility, and increase pregnancy complications. Shahine urges retailers to reduce the presence of harmful chemicals like PFAS and toxic plastics, allowing women and their families to make safer choices for their health and well-being.

Lowest-ranking retailers include restaurant and dollar store chains, which scored among the worst in the report. Restaurants like Subway and Yum! Brands, along with the dollar store chain Five Below, earned failing grades for their lack of action in addressing the use of toxic chemicals and harmful plastics. “Nine years after our call to eliminate hazardous chemicals, dollar stores still have progress to make,” said Jose Bravo, national campaign coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. “Serving millions – including many People of Color and low-income communities, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar have a responsibility to provide safer products. It’s time to lead by replacing harmful chemicals with safer alternatives. Communities deserve transparency and action now.”

As a positive takeaway, the report found more than half of retailers are banning some dangerous chemicals and harmful plastics, with 68% percent of retailers making progress reducing certain toxic chemicals and plastics such as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic.

Several retailers in the beauty and personal care products sector are making good progress. Ulta Beauty, with a grade of B-, is recognized as the most improved retailer, nearly doubling its score since 2021. Both Sephora and Ulta Beauty are participating in ChemFORWARD’s Know Better, Do Better Collaborative, where companies in the beauty and personal care products sector are working together to comprehensively assess ingredients and find safer alternatives. A recent report demonstrates what retailers can do to improve their grades: assessing ingredients, filling data gaps with hazard assessments, and phasing out the most harmful chemicals.

The Retailer Report Card, which includes beauty justice metrics, has been instrumental in promoting the protection of consumers from toxic chemicals in products marketed to people of color, such as skin lighteners and chemical hair straighteners, according to Micaela E. Martinez, Ph.D., director of environmental health for WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

The report outlines clear steps that retailers must take to improve their performance and protect public health. These include embracing The Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace which includes: adopting comprehensive safer chemicals policies; requiring full transparency from suppliers; restricting toxic chemicals and plastics, such as PFAS and PVC, in products and packaging; and implementing safer solutions to chemicals and plastics of high concern.