The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated a pair of widely used industrial chemicals as hazardous substances under the country’s Superfund program, accelerating a crackdown on toxic compounds known as “forever chemicals.”
The rule will require companies to report leaks of two of the most commonly used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and help pay to clean up existing contamination.
The EPA separately last week announced its first-ever drinking water standards to guard against PFAS pollution.
The new rule targets contamination from two PFAS known as PFOA and PFOS.
We should really start holding companies and manufacturers responsible for all the single use items they produce. Too much do manufactures and companies create items and then put the burden of cleanup and disposal on tax payers, society, and the environment.
Simple things like a single-use coffee cup costs nothing for the manufacturer, but the cost is “transferred” to the city in garbage and recycling costs. And when that coffee cup becomes litter on the street, or ends up in an ocean or pond, it cost society both cleanup cost and indirectly healthcare costs (when the plastics end up inside us).
Cities and governments should for example start charging the full cost of public waste and recycling collection.
Manufacturers should also be legally responsible to receive back all packaging and products they produce and they should be responsible for the disassembly and recycling of those products.
This could have the added benefit of stopping things like fast fashion, and planned obsolescence in everyday items and appliances.
Think of how beer and liquor stores take back and recycle their bottles, this should also include the cardboard and packaging.