Walmart sued over hazardous waste
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Retail giant Walmart illegally dumps more than 1 million batteries, aerosol cans of insect killer and other products, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints and other hazardous waste into California landfills each year, state prosecutors alleged Monday in a lawsuit that the company labeled “unjustified.”
“As we shop the brightly packed aisles there are products that will never make it into the cart — returned, damaged or pulled from the shelves for a variety of reasons,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The attorney general’s office settled a previous similar lawsuit in 2010 in which Walmart, which operates more than 300 stores in California, paid $25 million and agreed to stop the dumping into local landfills that are not equipped to contain the hazardous products.
