Cross-posted from WLRD News

Congratulations to the Hazardous Waste Program for being named an EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year for the seventh consecutive year. This national award recognizes individuals, businesses, and other entities that identify cleaning and chemical products to be healthier for people and the environment.

The Program advocates for upstream strategies to eliminate harmful chemicals at their source, rather than requiring homeowners and the public sector to dispose and/or treat them. Two examples: the presence of “forever” chemicals (for example, PFAS), in everyday products used in packaging, cosmetics, cookware, upholstery cleaners, rain-resistant gear; and the presence of 6PPD-Q in tires that, as they wear down, gets into stormwater and kills salmon before they can spawn.

The program’s efforts to institute extended producer reasonability is similar to making polluters pay for legacy contamination (such as the Duwamish river) but is focused on holding the manufacturers of today responsible for end-of-life management of products and packaging, which creates incentives for producers to incorporate environmental considerations into the design of their products and packaging.