Walmart has again found itself at the center of environmental violation complaints, this time brought on by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The Golden State is accusing the retail giant of dumping more than one million hazardous and toxic waste materials throughout California landfills each year.
The state is accusing Walmart of dumping 80 tons of items including batteries, toxic cleaning supplies, aerosol cans of insecticide, latex paint, electronic waste, and other hazardous items. The lawsuit explains that Walmart dumped these hazardous items in landfills that were not properly equipped. Bonta alleges that Walmart’s unlawful disposal of hazardous material poses a danger to the environment and violates numerous state laws.
According to the state, 58 inspections in 13 counties of trash compactors were taken from Walmart stores between 2015 to this year. In every inspection, the state found dozens of products that contain hazardous waste including medical waste. Bonta adds that there were even customer records with personal information that were improperly disposed of.
The systematic Management and Disposal of Hazardous Waste and Medical Waste in violation of California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law and Medical Waste Management Act, respectively,” the lawsuit reads, “and the disposal of personal identifying information in violation of California’s Customer Records Law, are also violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law.”
A spokesman for the company, Randy Hargrove, called the lawsuit unjustified and explained that the company will fight back. “The state is demanding a level of compliance regarding waste disposal from our stores of common household products and other items that goes beyond what is required by law.”
Since 2010, the Attorney General's office has overseen over 3,800 audits. According to Hargrove, the audits reveal that Walmart trash compactors “contain at most 0.4% of items of potential concern.” The nationwide average is 3%. Hargrove defended, “Our compactors are far cleaner than the state average.”
When hazardous materials are not properly disposed of, the toxins can seep back into the environment and contaminate vital resources including the air and a community's drinking water.
During a news conference announcing the lawsuit, California Department of Toxic Substances Control Director Meredith Williams shared, “Pesticides, electronics, household hazardous waste must be disposed of properly, or they can be released into our air, our water and soil resulting in a number of negative health outcomes — including cancer, neurological disorders, asthma, or learning disabilities.”
This is not the first time Walmart has been accused of improper waste disposal of hazardous material. In 2010, Walmart agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle claims that they improperly handled and dumped hazardous waste materials in stores across the state. The settlement also prompted the retail giant to change its practices nationwide. The 2010 case was brought forward by over 20 prosecutors and 32 environment groups that accused the retail giant including its Sam’s Club Warehouse stores of violating environmental laws and regulations.
In a similar lawsuit, Walmart paid out $1.2 million to Missouri in 2012 to settle claims of hazardous waste disposal.
In May 2013, Walmart pled guilty to six federal misdemeanors of negligently discharging a pollutant into the drainage systems of at least 16 different California counties. In that case, Walmart paid up $81 million. The deal, which also answered the Missouri claims, required Walmart to pay a combined $110 million to resolve allegations that they broke federal and state environmental laws.
“When a big box store disposes of unwanted goods, just like the rest of us, they need to do so properly. Unfortunately, Walmart — the largest company in the world by revenue — has failed to do that on a grand scale here in California,” Bonta said.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control also joined in on Attorney General Bonta’s lawsuit. The district attorneys of Almeda, Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Tulare, and Yolo counties also joined in as well.
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