Home Depot Inc. is eliminating substances like formaldehyde and lead in several categories, making it the latest retailer to accede to demands for greener products. The changes are part of a broader plan to minimize or disclose harmful substances in the paints, carpets, insulation and flooring it sells.
Home Depot follows Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and other large retailers that have moved to both disclose the chemicals in the products they sell and remove them whenever possible. The world’s largest home-improvement company says it’s working with suppliers and groups like the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council to find safer components.
Home Depot said it has “significantly improved” its paints in the past decade, removing triclosan, lead, and formaldehyde from the latex-based wall paint it sells in the U.S. and Canada. It has also eliminated substances such as vinyl chloride and perfluorooctanoic acid from the indoor wall-to-wall carpeting it sells.
As part of the announcement, Home Depot said formaldehyde is excluded from the paints, carpet and insulation it sells. In laminate flooring, the company set the level allowed at 0.0073 parts per million. That’s lower than the 0.05 ppm required by California, which has the strictest rules in the U.S.
Source: Bloomberg