3M made information in December, saying it should finish the manufacture of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (a.ok.a. PFAS) by the top of 2025. For these of us who’ve been involved about poisonous chemistries widespread in on a regular basis merchandise, that is nice information, even when a long time late.
PFAS, generally known as “ceaselessly chemical compounds” because of their stability within the atmosphere, have lengthy been beneath hearth from environmentalists and human well being advocates because of their potential for toxicity. Sustainability professionals and main firms have been working towards elimination of those chemical compounds from merchandise starting from quick meals wrappers to constructing merchandise for greater than a decade. The connection between 3M and PFAS has lengthy been a problem right here in my dwelling state of Minnesota, the place elevated ranges of the chemical compounds have been first recognized within the ingesting water of some japanese Saint Paul suburbs in 2004. The state sued 3M over these elevated ranges of PFAS again in 2010, a case finally settled for $850 million in early 2018. Articles about PFAS abound; you possibly can learn a few of GreenBiz’s previous protection of the subject right here, right here, right here and right here.
All supplies ought to be chemically innocent earlier than we contemplate them recyclable.
3M’s announcement gave me flashbacks to the start of my profession, once I was working with suppliers and product engineers attempting to remove problematic chemical compounds from merchandise. After I began doing company sustainability work nearly precisely 10 years in the past, there have been three main hurdles to eliminating incumbent chemistry from merchandise:
- Gathering the knowledge from the suppliers to grasp what was within the supplies within the first place was almost unimaginable. It’s actually fairly surprising how little data producers typically have concerning the chemistry of their merchandise.
- Lots of the safer options had but to be invented, and plenty of of these which have been created since that point are nonetheless not manufactured at scale, making substitution fairly troublesome.
- When there have been viable options, convincing each inner stakeholders and suppliers that eliminating chemical compounds of concern was attainable and mandatory was troublesome. As soon as a fabric and related chemistry are chosen, it may be extremely troublesome to dislodge them from use.
There’s in all probability an excellent joke about these challenges right here, however I’ll go away it to the GIF under for instance.
Happily for everybody concerned, the primary hurdle has gotten barely smaller over time as chemical transparency has turn out to be extra widespread. The openness of suppliers to reveal extra data is because of a mixture of:
In fascinated about PFAS and different chemical compounds of concern, I wish to level you to some assets the place you possibly can study extra about widespread chemical compounds with recognized human and environmental hazards.
“Inexperienced Chemistry: Concept and Observe”
The start line for anybody fascinated by decreased toxicity for supplies and merchandise ought to be this seminal guide on the subject of inexperienced chemistry, revealed 25 years in the past this yr. It nonetheless holds up as top-of-the-line guides to enhancing the chemistry of merchandise and the authors of the guide, Paul Anastas and John Warner, are two of probably the most sought-after minds on the topic. I’d suggest this guide to anybody fascinated by beginning their firm’s journey in the direction of greener chemistry.
The Six Lessons
On the entry stage, you possibly can study lots concerning the poisonous legacy of chemical compounds from the Six Lessons, offered by the Inexperienced Science Coverage Institute. This overview of PFAS, antimicrobials, flame retardants, bisphenols and phthalates, some solvents and sure metals educates the learner about a number of the most ubiquitous makes use of of poisonous chemical compounds in commerce right now. The method is easy and advocates for the elimination of chemical compounds within the six courses. The institute additionally requires avoiding substitution of toxics with comparable chemical compounds (construction or useful teams) as a result of potential for comparable toxicity endpoints with that method (see Bisphenol A to Bisphenol S debacle).
Pharos Challenge
The Wholesome Constructing Community has carried out us fairly the favor with Pharos Challenge, a chemical database that outlines recognized chemical toxicity endpoints for over 146,000 chemical compounds. The useful resource will be searched by title, Chemical Summary Service quantity (CAS), widespread makes use of and even widespread merchandise. It’s out there for a small annual payment, however in the event you’re , right here’s an instance of the knowledge that may be discovered for a chemical, on this case benzene. Whereas not each chemical has in depth data because of lack of toxicity information (one other massive downside), Challenge Pharos is a superb instrument that I used nearly each day in my work as a company sustainability practitioner.
GreenScreen for Safer Chemical substances
I found the GreenScreen for Safer Chemical substances comparative hazard evaluation protocol very early in my profession and am nonetheless grateful I did. The protocol walks skilled customers via 18 human and environmental well being endpoints to evaluate particular person chemical compounds, finally culminating with a benchmark rating of benchmark one (BM-1) via benchmark 4 (BM-4) — with BM-1 being probably the most hazardous supplies and BM-4 being probably the most benign. This evaluation methodology was developed by Clear Manufacturing Motion, a Massachusetts nonprofit specializing in safer chemistry. It presents many ranges of coaching from a free 60-minute webinar to an intensive 120-hour Approved Practitioner program. Familiarizing oneself with this program and utilizing it along side the Pharos Challenge database will be fairly helpful in serving to your group design safer merchandise and optimize present chemistries.
The takeaway for me? We can’t anticipate to transition to a sustainable round economic system by persevering with to depend on poisonous chemistry. We should always try for infinite circulation of secure supplies and vitamins in cycles. In different phrases, all supplies ought to be chemically innocent earlier than we contemplate them recyclable.
