District attorneys in several Bay Area counties along with California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced this week a $7.5 million settlement with Walmart to resolve allegations that the retail giant unlawfully disposed of hazardous and medical waste into landfills statewide.
Multiple counties across the state including Alameda, Monterey, San Joaquin and Solano joined with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and Bonta to carry out over 70 Walmart waste audits from 2015 to 2021, Bonta’s office said.
District attorney’s offices reviewed the waste sent from Walmart stores in their jurisdiction to municipal landfills, “and found thousands of containers of toxic aerosols and liquid wastes, including spray paints, rust removers, bleach, pesticides and medical waste,” Bonta said, including over-the-counter drugs.
According to the court filings, Walmart has over 300 retail stores in California and is the largest retail chain in the country. The stores allegedly placed waste in compactors and containers that were destined for landfills that “consistently” included hazardous waste, medical waste and consumer records containing personal information.
On Tuesday, Walmart hailed the settlement as a sign they have a good system in place to address waste.
“We are pleased that the state of California recognized in this settlement that Walmart’s goal is ‘to advance the protection of the health and safety of the people of California and the protection of the environment,’” said a Walmart spokesperson in an email Tuesday evening. “The fact that the settlement agreement requires Walmart to ‘maintain’ our pre-existing waste compliance program is a testament to the strength of the compliance program we have built, and the settlement agreement itself recognized that Walmart’s program is extremely effective at keeping allegedly hazardous waste out of public landfills.”
Walmart has had actions brought against it for similar issues within the past 20 years, court records state, but had still allegedly failed to come into compliance.
The filed complaint dated Feb. 10, 2022 used Walmart’s own numbers to make the argument that illegal waste was allegedly being dumped.
“By Walmart’s own count, 28 pounds [of hazardous waste] sent 19 times per year per store would result in 798,000 pounds of hazardous waste being sent to California’s municipal landfills by Walmart California facilities over a 5-year period… or 79.8 tons annually,” reads the complaint about an internal analysis done by Walmart in 2016.
In 2017, Walmart made another analysis using a sample size of eight stores in the state. Audits of its municipal waste revealed up to 37 hazardous waste items per ton of trash, or 222 items per compactor. Two hundred and twenty-two items sent 19 times per year per store would result in over 6.3 million hazardous waste items going into landfills over a five-year period, or more than 1.2 million items annually.
Ensuring compliance
In addition to paying $7.5 million in civil penalties and costs, Walmart is now required to hire an independent auditor to conduct three annual rounds of audits at its facilities throughout the state over the next four years.
“Walmart’s illegal disposal of hazardous and medical waste not only violated California laws, but, if left unchecked, posed a threat to human health and the environment,” said Bonta in a statement released by his office. “As a result of this investigation and lawsuit, Walmart has taken significant steps to prevent such disposals from happening in the future.”
“We appreciate that the government agencies have recognized that Walmart strives to safeguard both the environment and the people of California,” said the retail giant.
Other counties involved in the suit include Fresno, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernadino, San Diego, Tulare and Yolo counties.