EC study guides creation of sustainable-by-design criteria

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘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

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’