Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, recently published implementation guidelines for its "Sustainable Chemistry in Consumables Policy" on its website. The policy aims to review and replace concerned chemicals in consumer products sold in Walmart stores.
The policy implementation guidelines categorize chemical substances into three levels of concern:
1. Priority Chemicals – These are substances of very high concern (SVHC) as defined in Article 57 of the EU Chemical Regulation REACH.
2. Walmart Priority Chemicals – This list includes thousands of hazardous substances listed in 22 international chemical regulations derived from the EU, the US EPA, and state chemical regulations of other US states. A detailed list is provided in Appendix 1 of the implementation guidelines.
3. Walmart's High Priority Substances – Based on the above list and discussions with its suppliers, approximately 10 chemicals have been identified as essential for replacement. These chemicals will serve as the starting point for implementing Walmart's sustainable chemicals policy for consumer products. Currently, Walmart states that due to commercial confidentiality, it will not disclose these 10 chemicals. Instead, it will notify manufacturers whose products contain these high priority substances directly through supply chain channels and work with suppliers to find alternatives to these chemicals.
According to Walmart's policy, suppliers must fill in the chemical substances used in their products on the website (Warehousing Education and Research Council, WERCSmart website). The information will be cross-referenced with the 22 international chemical substance regulations mentioned above, and suppliers whose products contain priority chemical substances will be notified by Walmart.
This policy will not only extend product safety pressures to suppliers, but will also prompt manufacturers throughout the product supply chain to consider how to reduce or replace the content of harmful chemicals in these consumer products.
Initially, Walmart's policy will focus on consumer products, including cosmetics, pet products, laundry and care products, cleaning supplies, paper products, and baby care products.
Starting in January 2015, all suppliers were required to provide complete online product ingredient disclosure information, and by 2018, they were required to provide information on Walmart's priority chemicals contained in their products. Walmart also committed to compiling and producing a report in 2016 to calculate how much the use of hazardous substances had been reduced or replaced since the policy was implemented (with 2012 as the baseline).
Please see the attached document for Walmart's Sustainable Chemicals Policy Guidelines for Consumer Products: Walmart Implementation Guide – Last Updated March 2014 (English)
Sources: Chemical Watch (2014-03-03) (Compiled by PIDC) Attachment file:Walmart _Implementation Guide – Last Updated March 2014_ENG.pdf
