European Commission (EC) releases study mapping current sustainability initiatives and research applicable to creating sustainable-by-design criteria; particular focus on materials and chemicals, including a section assessing nanomaterials; finds few policies related to the production phase of a material’s life cycle; next steps are to identify specific aspects of sustainability to be covered in the criteria and how to evaluate them
March 26, 2021
Safe and Sustainable by Design: 1st EU stakeholder workshop
European Commission holds workshop with stakeholders to discuss criteria for chemicals that are Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD); implementation of EU’s Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) will depend on clear and implementable criteria for SSbD, amongst other central pillars such as essential use and generic risk assessment
March 25, 2021
Collaborative to verify and register safer chemical alternatives
Chem Forward and Sustainable Packaging Coalition launch collaborative to identify, assess, and verify safer alternatives for use in food packaging; plan to develop cloud-based registration system, highlight best practices, develop common agenda to accelerate systemic change
March 10, 2021
OECD publishes guidance on identifying chemical alternatives
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication aims to increase agreement on approach and criteria for alternatives selection, set minimum requirements to determine safer substitutes; provides guidance on setting scope, using comparative hazard and exposure assessments, comparing trade-offs; applies framework in example case study
February 24, 2021
Washington state publishes updates on PFAS, draft criteria
Department of Ecology for the US state of Washington publishes alternatives assessment for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging, identifies alternatives for four packaging types; restrictions will come into force early 2023; working draft criteria defining “safer” and “feasible and available” for alternative assessments released for public comment
September 23, 2020
Walmart responds to increase in use of priority chemicals
US retailer reports 1% increase in footprint across its product assortment from 2017 to 2018; aims to achieve 10% reduction by 2022; plans to finish analysis and publish most recent data later this year
August 14, 2020
5th Progress Report by Global Plastics Alliance
Global Plastics Alliance reports ‘steady’ increase in marine litter prevention projects; Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that current commitments would enable only 7% reduction in annual plastic flows into the ocean
August 13, 2020
EU notifies C9-C14 PFCA restriction to WTO
European Union notifies World Trade Organization of proposed amendment to REACH Restriction List (Annex XVII) to restrict manufacturing, use, placing on the market and import of C9-C14 perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), their salts and related substances within the EU; long-chain PFCAs can be present in food contact materials as impurities but also degradation products of long-chain fluorotelomers
August 12, 2020
‘PFAS-free’ guides for restaurants and groceries
US NGO Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families releases guides on eliminating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from food packaging used by fast-food restaurants and grocery chains
July 23, 2020
EDC implications for health, economy, and policy
New scientific reports summarize implications of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) for human health and implications for economics and policy; call for ‘urgent action to reduce exposure to EDCs’