As the Outdoor Industry Ditches ‘Forever Chemicals,’ REI Lags Behind

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Last week, REI Co-op shops across the nation closed for Black Friday. It’s an organization custom courting again to 2015, the place the out of doors retailer asks clients to “opt outside” relatively than take part in a post-Thanksgiving purchasing spree.

But there’s one factor that REI hasn’t but opted out of: a category of compounds often called “forever chemicals.” By utilizing these chemical substances in its waterproof out of doors clothes, a coalition of nonprofits and well being specialists says REI is needlessly polluting the setting and damaging individuals’s well being.

“It’s ironic that a company like REI … is selling products that are contaminating some of the most beautiful and wild places,” stated Mike Schade, a program director for the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future. Similar firms corresponding to Patagonia have already dedicated to phasing out per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — often called PFAS — and Schade’s group is calling on REI to do the identical.

PFAS comprise a class of chemicals which have been utilized in shopper merchandise because the mid-Nineteenth century — usually to present stain- and waterproof properties to merchandise like nonstick cookware, meals packaging, and out of doors clothes. The downside, nonetheless, is that PFAS are linked to most cancers, metabolic problems, diminished fertility, and different well being issues. Plus, they don’t break down as soon as they escape into the setting, therefore the nickname “forever chemicals.” Scientists are actually discovering PFAS nearly all over the place they appear — in drinking water, in breastmilk, in people’s bloodstreams. Even rainwater is now contaminated with unsafe levels of PFAS.

PFAS “tend to get into everything” and pose critical dangers to public well being, stated Jimena Díaz Leiva, science director for the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health. They’re launched not solely by shearing off of contaminated supplies like clothes, however on the manufacturing stage, the place massive portions could enter the setting via wastewater or airborne particles.

REI is hardly the only company whose merchandise have examined constructive for PFAS. Toxic-Free Future organizers say they’re focusing on REI as a result of it’s a big and well-respected out of doors retailer. REI doesn’t simply produce its personal strains of clothes, but in addition sells gadgets from an enormous array of different manufacturers: The North Face, Patagonia, Arc’teryx, Mammut, and Black Diamond, simply to call a couple of. Some of those manufacturers have already dedicated to phasing out PFAS. Still, Schade stated REI might nudge them to maneuver quicker by screening merchandise for PFAS, along with phasing the poisonous supplies from its personal product strains.

REI has “a massive influence over the policies of the companies whose products they sell,” Schade stated. “Requiring their suppliers to ban PFAS in their products … can have a ripple effect across the outdoor industry.”

REI says on its web site that it’s already stopped utilizing two of essentially the most well-studied “forever” compounds — so-called “long-chain” PFAS often called PFOA and PFOS — and changed them with short-chain PFAS “where viable alternatives do not yet exist.” But researchers warn short-chain PFAS could also be simply as problematic as their long-chain counterparts when it comes to the threats they pose to environmental and human well being..

In response to Grist’s request for remark, REI stated it was “in the process of eliminating all remaining PFAS from our own products,” however it didn’t tackle questions on a timeline for that transition.

REI hasn’t elaborated publicly on the boundaries it faces because it strikes away from PFAS. But accounts from different retailers describe an analogous downside: It’s been laborious to search out PFAS replacements which might be equally efficient when creating sturdy out of doors merchandise.

PFAS labored “really, really well,” stated Matt Dwyer, vp of product impression and innovation for the out of doors clothes firm Patagonia, which plans to eliminate PFAS from its merchandise by 2024. For years, his firm and others relied on the now-infamous class of chemical substances to make rain gear waterproof — both by making use of the chemical substances externally in a “durable, water-repellent” end, recognized in industry-speak as “DWR,” or by weaving them into a water-proof membrane that may be sandwiched between layers of material.

Early alternative candidates didn’t measure up, Dwyer stated, likening them to “an artist’s hammer and chisel” subsequent to the “dynamite” of PFAS. The alternate options additionally resulted in product unintended effects that compromised sustainability in different methods: Some early variations of a PFAS-free end prompted clothes to crumble, rising issues over textile waste.

Still, some manufacturers appear to have discovered ample options to maneuver ahead. Retailers together with Marmot and Mountain Hardwear have launched profitable strains of PFAS-free gadgets. Officials from Polartec, which makes materials for firms together with Black Diamond and The North Face, switched to PFAS-free DWR remedies in July 2021 and has noted “no loss of performance from a water repellency or durability standpoint.” The out of doors model Jack Wolfskin says they’ve already gone PFAS-free.

Swedish out of doors model Fjällräven, which claims to be PFAS-free apart from its zippers, says the one factor PFAS-free applied sciences appear unable to do is repel oil. But that’s a compromise the corporate says it’s been prepared to make to deal with an pressing menace to public well being and the setting.

Why do these firms report such success whereas others haven’t? It’s unclear, since aggressive clothes manufacturers are usually tight-lipped about their PFAS replacements. Lydia Jahl, a science and coverage affiliate for the nonprofit Green Science Policy Institute, stated firms could also be proof against the prices of switching their product strains, or they could be operating into provide chain points. (Large material suppliers might not be able to ditch PFAS, even when the retailers shopping for their supplies are.)

Some specialists argue the challenges firms say they face when eliminating PFAS are overblown; in spite of everything, individuals have been making clothes for excessive sports activities since lengthy earlier than PFAS turned ubiquitous. Back then, firms used wax-like finishes to maintain water from soaking via their clothes. The British Air Force merely used tightly-woven cotton fabric.

In addition to bringing again a few of these older strategies, right this moment’s retailers have a rising variety of choices to switch PFAS. Fabrics from Marmot and Jack Wolfskin are utilizing polyurethane, a sort of plastic materials, to assist repel water. Other firms use brand-name remedies like Empel and Bionic Finish Eco that market themselves as environmentally pleasant.

“There are alternatives,” Jahl stated. “If they invest and put more resources into it, there are really good materials chemists … who can figure out the replacements for these companies.”

Schade, in the meantime, is hoping state laws will drive firms’ arms. California not too long ago enacted a law to eradicate “intentionally added” PFAS from most attire by 2025, and — as a result of firms are unlikely to create separate product strains only for California — the regulation is anticipated to set a nationwide {industry} commonplace. REI says it supports the law, which gained’t apply to out of doors clothes for “severe wet conditions” till January 1, 2028.

Washington state can also be eyeing stricter rules for PFAS; the Evergreen State’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, signed a bill this spring that’s anticipated to end in a faster phaseout of the poisonous substances, though a timeline hasn’t but been specified.

“We are hopeful that these policies will prompt REI to reformulate their products,” Schade stated — ideally, quicker than the legal guidelines require. “The company has shown it can both do well and do good at the same time,” he stated, pointing to its commitments on climate change and other hazardous chemicals. “We’d like to see REI be a leader and do the right thing to tackle chemicals that have polluted the drinking water for millions of Americans.”