Walmart settles $7.5M hazardous waste lawsuit with state, counties

Walmart Inc. has agreed to pay $7.5 million to correct waste disposal practices after the corporation was caught dumping hazardous products into landfills, officials announced Tuesday.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the district attorneys’ offices in Alameda, Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Tulare and Yolo counties filed the now-settled lawsuit against Walmart in December 2021. An Alameda County Superior Court judge was expected to sign the stipulated judgment by the end of this month.

“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,” California Attorney General Bonta said in a statement. “As a result of this investigation and lawsuit, Walmart has taken significant steps to prevent such disposals from happening in the future. This settlement will ensure that Walmart takes the necessary steps to ensure that its hazardous waste is handled and disposed of as required by law. At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to hold any entity accountable for violating our environmental laws.”

The civil suit stemmed from audits by the DTSC and DAs’ offices at Walmart stores between 2015 and 2021 that reported instances of store employees illegally disposing of hazardous waste in regular trash bins, according to court documents. The discarded toxic substances were then illegally transported to local landfills that are not permitted to receive chemical waste.

“During those audits, the district attorneys’ offices reviewed the contents of waste that Walmart had sent from its facilities to municipal landfills and found thousands of containers of toxic aerosols and liquid wastes including spray paints, rust removers, bleach, pesticides, and medical waste, such as over-the counter drugs,” according to Bonta’s office. 

A 2010 lawsuit against Walmart by some of the current action’s plaintiffs was for related violations, but instead of implementing reforms, the Walmart employees repeated the same unlawful waste disposal protocol, the Riverside County DA’s office said.

“We are pleased that California recognizes 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,'” according to a prepared statement by Walmart to City News Service.

“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 recognizes that Walmart’s program is extremely effective at keeping allegedly hazardous waste out of public landfills,” the company’s statement said. “We appreciate that the government agencies have recognized that Walmart strives to safeguard both the environment and the people.”

Under the settlement, Walmart must pay $4.29 million in civil penalties and $3.2 million in reimbursement for the counties’ legal expenses, the DA’s office said. Riverside County will receive $170,000.

Injunctive terms of the settlement will require Walmart to hire an independent auditor to do three annual rounds of waste audits at its facilities throughout California in the next four years, according to court documents.

Riverside County has 33 Walmart stores and distribution centers, San Bernardino County has 28 Walmart facilities and Orange County has 25.