Dozens of brands come with a side of dangerous plastics, report finds

Food and cosmetics from dozens of major retailers come wrapped in potentially dangerous plastics, a new report has found.

More than 17 retailers have taken no steps to protect their customers from chemicals in their packaging that can lead to diseases ranging from obesity to cancer, according to the 2024 Report Card from Toxic-Free Future.

That plastic packaging — films, wrappings and coatings on to-go containers — can leach toxic chemicals into food or the home, as The Hill has reported.

These can include “forever chemicals” such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS and PFOS) as well as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the toxic plastic made famous by the East Palestine railway disaster in 2023.

The human body is “exquisitely sensitive” to these chemicals, for which there is likely no safe level, leading endocrinologist groups found earlier this year. 

That’s because these fossil-fuel derived compounds can imitate hormones — the chemical messengers that work alongside the nervous system to manage virtually every system in the human body — contributing to problems from obesity and diabetes to breast and testicular cancer.

Toxic-Free Future puts out an annual report card judging companies on their commitment to using safer chemicals and their willingness to be transparent about the dangers of the products they currently sell.

It also look at their initiatives to ban particular dangerous chemicals, like PFAS and PVC — and, if they have in fact begun swapping them out with new alternatives, how safe those alternatives actually are.

Of the 50 retailers surveyed by Toxic-Free Future, 80 percent had failed to substitute dangerous plastic compounds with safer ones, the nonprofit found.

There were standouts on both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, just four retailers — Apple, Sephora, Target and Walmart — had substituted hazardous chemicals with significantly safer ones, the report found.

These companies — along with B-graded Target and C-graded Lowe’s and Amazon — have also invested in designing non-toxic alternatives to the current crop of pernicious and pervasive plastics.

On the other side, the environmental nonprofit awarded an ‘F’ to those retailers, which included grocery stores Publix and Trader Joe’s, departments stores Macy’s and Nordstrom’s, and fast food giants McDonald’s, Subway and Chipotle.

Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, also earned a failing grade. So did Inspire Brands, the parent company of Arby’s, Dunkin’, Buffalo Wild Wings and Jimmy Johns.

The report found that 15 out of 50 retailers have set goals to eliminate PFAS, and 10 to eliminate PVC — the latter of which is a particular problem in hardware stores, which need to ultimately replace the sale of vinyl flooring with safer linoleum.

But much of the problem for retailers hinges on the fact that supply chains are so long and complex — and so thoroughly impregnated with dangerous plastics — that they may not themselves know what is in their products or packaging.

“Most retailers assessed do not know the chemical content of the products they sell,” the report found. 

Fewer than half of retailers require their suppliers to disclose the chemical contents of their products to either the business itself or its consumers.