REI will ban ‘forever chemicals’ from clothes and cookware in 2024

Above photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The announcement is “yet another nail in the coffin for PFAS.”

After more than a year of pressure from environmental groups, the major outdoor retailer REI announced on Tuesday that it will ban hazardous “forever chemicals” from its clothing and cookware by fall 2024.

REI’s new product standards will require its suppliers to eliminate all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from the pots, pans, apparel, shoes, bags, packs, and similar gear sold by the retail chain. Suppliers of heavy-duty apparel like professional-grade raincoats will have until 2026 to make those products PFAS-free.

Mike Schade, a program director for the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future, told Grist the decision would “drive yet another nail in the coffin for PFAS.”

PFAS are a class of over 9,000 human-made chemicals whose nonstick and water-repellent properties have made them useful in an array of consumer products, from outdoor clothing to pans to firefighting foam. These substances don’t break down naturally in the environment — hence the name “forever chemicals” — and have been detected in the bloodstream of 97 percent of Americans and hundreds of wild animal species worldwide. While regulators are still looking into the full health implications of PFAS, the chemicals have already been linked to serious human health problems including cancer and liver damage.

Schade said not doing so was inconsistent with REI’s branding as an environmental champion. “PFAS leaves behind a toxic trail of pollution,” he told Grist. He cited widespread drinking water contamination from PFAS production facilities across the United States, as well as problems further downstream, when PFAS shear off waterproof clothing. PFAS can also muck up indoor air quality in homes and stores, wafting into the air from treated products like clothing.

Prior to this week’s total ban, REI stated that it aimed to “expand” the use of PFAS alternatives and that it didn’t use two of the most common forever chemicals — called PFOA and PFOS. It was, however, using newer, so-called “short-chain” PFAS where “viable alternatives” did not yet exist. (Some of REI’s competitors, including Jack Wolfskin and Fjallraven, say they’ve already completed the transition to these alternative technologies, which could include options like polyurethane, a kind of plastic material, or brand-name chemical treatments like Empel that market themselves as environmentally friendly.) Critics were quick to point out that these short-chain versions are not necessarily any safer than longer-chain forms of PFAS. And a recent independent test of REI apparel found both short- and (the allegedly banned) long-chain forms of PFAS.