In response to calls from environmental advocacy and labor groups, Canada’s biggest grocery retail and drugstore company, Loblaw Companies Limited, has made a public commitment to phase out thermal receipt paper containing hazardous BPA, BPS, and other bisphenols from its stores by the end of 2021. The company has more than 2,400 stores across Canada, including Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, NoFrills and Real Canadian Superstore.
This is a big deal as these toxic chemicals can rub off the receipt when touched and enter your bloodstream through your skin, posing health risks to cashiers and customers. Scientists have found that bisphenols may be hazardous at very low levels of exposure.
You can read all about Loblaw’s new action in this press release from our partners at Environmental Defence.
We applaud the company for taking this important step and hope the company will continue to take action to reduce its chemical footprint. Sobeys, Metro, and other Canadian retailers should step up and join Loblaw in banning toxic chemicals in their receipts.
Growing trend among retailers
Loblaw’s actions are the latest example of a growing trend among top North American retailers.
Earlier this year both Target and CVS Health also disclosed they were banning bisphenols in receipts. Best Buy, Costco, and Whole Foods Market have also taken action on BPS and other bisphenols in receipt paper in recent years.
Who’s minding the store?
Loblaw’s commitment comes a few months in advance of the release of our fifth annual Who’s Minding the Store Retailer Report Card, which benchmarks retail companies on their safer chemical policies and actions to eliminate toxic chemicals, such as eliminating bisphenol-coated receipts.
Loblaw earned a letter grade of C in our most recent annual report card.