Victoria: Hi, this is Victoria Meyer.
Welcome back to the Chemical Show where Chemicals Means Business.
Today I am sharing with you Five Key Themes for 2025 for
Household and Commercial Products.
So what is this all about?
This is a highlight and compilation episode.
I recently returned from the HCPA annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale.
First of all.
What is HCPA and why should I care?
So the HCPA is the Household and Commercial Products Association.
It represents 180 billion in products that are used for cleaning, protecting,
maintaining and disinfecting our homes and our commercial
environments, whether they're offices, stores, hospitals, et cetera.
At home, these are many of the products that you have under your sink, in your
cleaning closet, whatever you've got.
Um, so cleaning products, antimicrobials, pest control, and more.
So what I thought was really interesting about this is, it's not just about
the, well, it is a lot about the finished products themselves, but
there's also the chemicals and the other ingredients that are part of this.
If you are a fan of how stuff is made and there's a few different shows on that,
then HCPA is a fascinating place for you.
I've actually doing something unique this time in that, I've recorded a
bunch of individual interviews with HCPA staff and some of their board members.
Those interviews are available on the Chemical Show's YouTube channel.
Um, yes, if you didn't know this, it is a podcast and yes,
we have a YouTube channel.
YouTube is actually one of the biggest podcasting, outlets today.
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regular basis, not just what we publish.
On our audio podcast, but also some, special stuff, just like
we're doing this week with HCPA.
Um, and also when you go out there, you're going to want to check out some
of the HCPA leaders, including Steve Caldeira, who is the president and
CEO of HCPA, Steve Bennett, Nicholas Georges, Molly Blessing, and Mike Gruber.
So a lot of great conversations that I'm sharing.
especially for you.
So here we go.
Five themes.
And these are themes I picked up both from the staff members, but also from
the attendees and member companies during sessions and during breaks, right?
So there's a lot of things that are really relevant to you
both as an individual consumer.
I found personally fascinating some of these aspects as well as business leaders.
Overarching all of this, and I think is so critical, just kind of an
overarching theme for HCPA itself is around safety, efficacy, um, appropriate
use and transparency, both of the products and of the regulations, right?
So that, those are some themes that are just so critical to the products that
we have in our homes and businesses, and really are critical to making, to
ensuring that they're feasable That we're actually able to produce and
sell and buy and distribute and what have you as well as the safe usage.
So that is one of those themes that maybe it was an overarching theme and
underpinning theme, certainly throughout.
Um, and in fact it's not actually one of my five themes.
So my five themes.
numbers.
Number one, Effective Federal.
EPA, Regulations and appropriate EPA Appropriations funding, right?
Why without funds, the EPA is understaffed.
We know that we've seen this.
In fact, we've seen this quite a lot over the past few years, right?
Slow approvals for new products.
Especially when we think about all the sustainable products that we are
trying to deliver to our customers.
So, um, a more effective EPA.
It actually ends up being better for the industry, right?
So a lot of companies are relying on EPA Safer Choice for transparency.
Consumers rely on EPA Safer Choice.
Um, we talked about things like PRIA, which is the Pesticide Registration
Improvement Act, something that has to get done every four or five
years, um, as well as TSCA reform.
In fact, so I'm going to share a couple of clips here.
So The first is from Steve Caldeira, who is the president and CEO, and
he talks about some of the key themes for HCPA as it goes forward,
which include PRIA and TSCA reform.
what are your priorities today?
Steve Calderia: Well, um, certainly TSCA reform.
As passed in 2016, President Obama signed that in June of 2016.
Um, certainly the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act, is only authorized
for 5 years, so it's, uh, we're working on PREA 6, um, and increasingly,
issues have moved to the state.
EPR, Extended Producer Responsibility, and including household hazardous waste.
So we're trying to deal with these increasing issues, our recycling,
microplastics, air quality, uh, et cetera, and, the states are increasing, um,
California, Oregon, Mass, Connecticut, uh, Washington State, um, and the like, so.
Victoria: Yeah, there's a lot, and there's a lot of activity going on.
And what strikes me about some of this is, uh, you know, all the
topics that you've talked about.
I think they're not just in the industry discussion.
They're also out in the general public, right?
Um, and many of these products touch individuals and consumers, right?
They're in our homes, they're in our offices, they're in our buildings.
So how do you, you know, is, how do you guys navigate maybe, Not just across
the industry and administration, but as you think about consumers, where
does the consumer influence come in?
Steve Calderia: come in?
Well, um, like I said, we, collaborate with unique stakeholders,
including industry, NGOs.
Um, we just don't say no to a, regulation or proposed legislation.
And we do it on behalf of our member companies so they can provide
innovative More sustainable, cleaner, greener products to our, consumers.
Victoria: And then the second clip I'm going to share with you is my conversation
with Steve Bennett, who is the EVP of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs.
And, and the question I asked Steve was.
Aren't we done with TSCA reform?
Hasn't it been reformed already?
And the answer to that is yes and no.
One of the things we've been talking about a little bit is TSCA.
And, uh, you're going to have to give us the definition of TSCA because I
can never get that definition right or what the acronym stands for.
But I honestly thought TSCA was done.
I thought we agreed on TSCA and yet I'm really learning that's not the case.
So can you talk about, first of all, what does TSCA stand for?
And secondly, what are we trying to accomplish with TSCA today?
Steve Bennett: TSCA, or the Toxic Substances Control Act,
originally passed in 1976.
I'm not going to say where I was at that point in
Victoria: point in
Steve Bennett: was reformed in 2016.
That point in time was a, the industry and the environmental community came
together to address needs in TSCA.
Because, you know, a 40 year old regulation had never been updated.
It needed some It needed some fine tuning, a lot of fine tuning.
One of the biggest drivers at that point in time, um, was
restoring confidence in the EPA.
When there's a lack of confidence in the EPA, other stakeholders, being
states, um, primarily states are going to help step in to address that lack of
Victoria: confidence.
And we certainly heard a lot about that as well in,
Steve Bennett: and, you know, I like you know frankly in the intervening years
since 2016 I was very EPA has not been able to, fully restore that confidence.
Certainly there's periods of time when the NGO community has not been happy
about where the EPA's direction and there's certainly times, clearly now
where industry is not happy with the EPA and, that's made it particularly
challenging for industry, you know, to get what, get done what they need to do.
Victoria: and I certainly hear a lot from companies I talk to is they're introducing
new products that it's just difficult.
To get a new product introduced, even though we apparently really
want some of these products.
Can you talk more about
Steve Bennett: that?
Yeah, so if you have a product in the marketplace and you want to replace an
ingredient or completely reformulate your product, you're going to have to have
a new ingredient in some way, shape or form a more sustainable, more durable,
new product qualities, you know, some way, shape or form, you want to have that
newer chemistry and to get that newer chemistry that has to be approved by EPA.
And that's been by far one of the biggest challenges getting that
approved in a reasonable amount of time and in a manner that you could
be able to market it in the market and sell that product in the marketplace.
And at the same time, you're also running the challenges with The
current chemistry that is out there, that has a distinct advantage.
Um, you know, it's already in the marketplace, so you've
got to compete against that.
So that has made it challenging for companies to get those newer
chemistries into the marketplace.
The more sustainable, improved ingredients is
Victoria: yet products are getting phased out.
Steve Bennett: Yes, and you look, you know, probably saw headlines in the, you
know, the New York Times and Washington Post this week on a couple chemicals
that have legacy chemicals, mostly legacy chemicals that the agency is phasing out.
In many cases that's appropriate.
Victoria: So has TSCA been effective in helping to phase out those chemicals?
Steve Bennett: Yes and no..
It's certainly trying to move the marketplace.
Um, but it's been a long, it's a long process and it takes a lot
of information, a lot of data, uh, to move those appropriately.
But if you're going to rephase out a particular chemistry, it'd be nice
if there's a replacement for that particular chemistry because many cases
it's filling, filling a critical need.
Victoria: The second key theme is around navigating state
regulations and driving alignment.
So one of the things that goes along with having an effective or ineffective
federal regulatory, um, system.
platform through the EPA and elsewhere is When the federal government
is less effective and our federal systems are left less effective.
Let's talk about the EPA it leaves the door open for the states to
take action and They have, right?
So this proliferation of state regulations, whether it be, um, EPR,
extended producer responsibility, we're going to talk about that a
little bit more, or elsewhere is it's really burdensome, right?
And so certain states have, become very active with this.
So not just California.
And I think we think about California, uh, as I, I certainly
think about California as having driven this for a long time, right?
If you think about like the labels that are on your mattresses and pillows,
a lot of it is driven by California regulations, but we're also seeing
this with Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, other states, um, maybe jockeying
for position to take the lead, right?
Because as one state.
It sets regulations, many others start to follow, and I'm going to bring in a clip
here from Mike Gruber, who is the EVP of government relations and public policy,
who talks about why this matters and why this is a priority, um, not just for HCPA,
but also for its member companies, just in trying to navigate state regulations
and driving alignment across that.
Mike Gruber: we just want to make sure that government agencies, whether it's
the federal agency or state agency, actually is functioning well and doing
the job they need to do, but making sure they're doing it in a way that we can
get innovations to market, and, uh, that there's a process through which
we can provide formal comments and they're considered, uh, and that we have
working relationships with regulators, both at the federal and state level.
Well,
Victoria: Got it.
Well, and so I think that, that federal and state balance is interesting
because it seems like, and we were talking just before we hit the record
button, that that balance has shifted and it's shifted significantly in
the past several years at least.
Can you talk about
Mike Gruber: Yeah.
So when I started out, when I left Capitol Hill in 2012 to become a federal lobbyist
for The Consumer Brands Association, which at that time was grocery manufacturers.
My prime primary work was federal.
Um, it's where we could, work on legislation that would say have a
federal preemption provision to try and prevent states from, you know, going
haywire and passing multiple packaging, labeling requirements that would create
it, patchwork problem for the industry.
Um, you know, over time, we have seen states really almost race to be the
strongest regulator on ingredients, on packaging, on sustainability
measures in the chemical space.
So, you know, 10, 12 years ago, what was 100 percent federal for me has
now become probably 85 percent state.
Victoria: With this navigating state regulations, one of the big topics,
um, and this is not a theme, but it just kind of ties into our state
regulations piece is around EPR, extended producer responsibility.
We're hearing about this a lot, right?
So EPR is here and companies need to be prepared.
So what is this all about?
Um, and it's really about packaging.
Uh, we think about it a lot of times it's plastic packaging.
It also applies to aerosols and, um, and it's about putting the responsibility
for end of life of these packaging materials back on the producers.
It's a lot of tracking, and reporting, and navigating this.
Uh, and so, You know, this is an area that, um, HCPA and its
members are very focused on.
In 2025, three states are requiring reporting.
So this is what's critical about this.
So Oregon, Colorado and California each have implemented EPR laws
that are taking effect now, 2025.
So if you're not ready, get ready, stay tuned.
My third theme that comes out of HCPA is around sustainability and innovation.
So this sustainability is really a key theme across the board.
The industry, right?
And so HCPA is, uh, uh, is no different there.
I'm going to share a clip from Molly Blessing, who is
their VP of sustainability.
Um, and Molly and I talked about just the importance of lightweighting of packaging,
greener and more sustainable products.
The ability to have effective recycling.
So if you think it kind of these things start linking together, we talked about
EPR and EPR as it relates to packaging.
One of the focus areas is around aerosol recycling.
And Molly talks about this focus to drive, um, aerosol recycling access rate to 85%.
So again, access is important.
Controlling the individual is a little bit trickier, but one of the
themes is really around focusing on making, uh, products and accessibility
for recycling and accessibility for sustainability, um, more available
and easier to engage with and take on.
I'm including a clip here from Molly.
Molly: We have three big picture focus areas.
So I should say for us, we take a very product centric approach.
We don't necessarily get into the high level corporate reporting requirements.
We were focused on what product is reaching the end consumer or the end user.
How do we make that better?
How do we make that better in a way that's tangible to them?
So we have three different focus areas.
One is the sustainable chemistry.
So what's actually going into that product formulation?
The second is the packaging.
So what are we, what materials are we using to package that product?
How are we doing that?
Um, is it perhaps set up in a system that incentivizes reuse or refill?
Is it set up in a way that reduces the weight of the packaging?
Could we perhaps use more recycled content, less virgin material?
Those kinds of questions are what we're asking on the packaging side.
And that's been a really big focus area for us.
I would say of our three, that's been the one to take it by far the most attention.
Victoria: And I know that you've talked about aerosol
recycling and the focus there.
Molly: Exactly.
Yeah.
So we, we started.
aerosol recycling initiative with our partner, our sister trade association,
the Can Manufacturers Institute, CMI.
We launched that back in May of 2022.
That initiative has two goals that are both quantitative and time bound.
So by 2030, we're aiming to increase the aerosol recycling access rate to 85%.
So that's making sure that exactly that that 85 percent of the population has
access to recycle their empty aerosols.
Which would be a pretty big jump from where we are right now.
I mean, so the most recent numbers we had from the sustainable
packaging coalition were just above
Victoria: We have Which is still, that's better than I would have expected,
Molly: I should say though, we recently had a revamp methodology
that looked at just more specific messaging that dropped us down to 39.
So there's, there's a ways to go there, but we also have some very great ideas for
how to make progress, including talking to the Murphs that are, Perhaps more
resistant to accepting aerosols and making sure that we're addressing the safety
concerns that they have on that end.
Yeah,
Victoria: Yeah.
Well, and then, of course, one of the big challenges, and I know that this
is something that HCPA is interested and concerned about, as well as your
member companies, is really extending it to the consumer, because really,
even myself as an educated consumer, I get confused as to what I'm allowed
to do, what I'm not allowed to do, what I can recycle, what I can't.
And so I think that whole education process along, um, Through to
the consumers becomes critical.
Molly: that's a great segue to our actually, first of our second goal for the
aerosol recycling initiative, which is to have 90 percent of aerosols labeled with
information about their recyclability and also how to appropriately recycle the can
Victoria: So the fourth theme that comes out of HCPA, and this to me
ties to transparency and safe use.
And this one is around just monitoring and systems that are getting put in place
around use and the misuse of products.
So the misuse of products was actually quite high as a conversational area.
In particular misuse of aerosol products.
So, um, there's a lot of conversation around dusters, which is like
the high compressed thing.
I'm looking at my computer here.
You know, the aerosol cans that may be used to clean your computer
keyboard and other things.
Real concern about the misuse of those aerosol products that people
are acquiring them, um, and huffing them is I guess the technical term.
Is that a non technical term?
I'm not exactly sure.
Uh, it's basically to get high, right?
And it's a problem, right?
Because it's, as you and I both know, we spend a lot of time, effort,
and resources to make sure that the products and whether they're chemical
products, whether the finished goods that we create are safe and effective.
For their intended use.
And then you have to guard against misuse, which is a challenging area.
Because how do you guard against human's creativity to, I guess, do
things they're not supposed to do.
So anyway, this is an area of focus, um, an area of conversation and continued
focus for HCPA and its member companies.
I've got a clip here from Nicholas Georges.
Talking about navigating this So the other thing you touched
on is this misuse of products.
And I know from, uh, the conversations I had with folks yesterday, certainly
in the aerosol committee, that was a big topic of discussion.
And I guess in my naive world, I didn't realize it was such a big issue, but just
the sheer misuse of aerosol products as people are Trying to get high, I guess.
Um,
Nicolas Georges: was, yeah.
Victoria: what's the role of HCPA in this, right?
So, I mean, we go through all the efforts trying to produce products
that are effective, safe, um, understand what the uses are, et
cetera, et cetera, complying to state and federal and local regulations.
And then there's misuse.
So, HCPA come into that?
Some
Nicolas Georges: So this is a topic we've been working on for decades, and
we've had some successes, but we've also seen rises in the uptick of people
abusing these types of products again, unfortunately, the aerosol industry
back in the nineties came up with a voluntary stand to have enhanced labeling.
Uh, toe to warn users and the general public about the dangers of
intentionally abusing these products.
You know, when you want to concentrate a vapor, you're displacing the oxygen.
That's gonna have an effect on your system.
Whether it's your brain, your lungs, your other systems within your body.
Victoria: Right.
Nicolas Georges: That's just gonna be the natural reaction
that's gonna take place there.
And, you know, the displacement of oxygen, that's the euphoric
high that you're getting there.
Victoria: Got it.
Nicolas Georges: Now, you're talking about products that are convenient.
And readily available for low cost.
And that's what makes these, among other consumer products, very
attractive to those that seek the
Victoria: warning.
Now that
Nicolas Georges: that warning, you know, for, for the uneducated, that
warning is to say, oh, don't do this.
But the reality is the people that are seeking this behavior and the
reason why HPA works with substance abuse experts is to, to recognize the
warning isn't to, to deter the, the use.
Because the people that are seeking that behavior, they
already know that they can do
this.
Victoria: do this.
They can go
Nicolas Georges: to, and whether it's, it's, they can't get.
Product A, they're just going to go to product B or product C,
whatever they can get their hands on.
It's to warn the loved ones in their lives, though, when they
see 12 cans in the bedroom or the
Victoria: the car.
Nicolas Georges: What's happening
Victoria: is
Nicolas Georges: Why is this taking place?
And when you see these enhanced warnings that aren't required by government,
that we're doing ourselves because we know there's an issue, that's
part of the discussion to hopefully educate them from that standpoint.
Um, because so much of this is just awareness.
Victoria: My fifth and final theme is around watching and waiting
for the new administration and the effects that that is going to have.
So the Trump administration takes seat in January and.
New administrations are not a new thing, right?
Every four years, the U S has this opportunity to, um, have some changes
on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
So there's always this expectation as it relates to government agencies,
the EPA, for instance, about how, what changes are going to take place.
So we know there's been a lot of vocalization of new ways
of working that are expected.
So consideration here, and it weighs certainly on the conversations within
each HCPA and across its member companies.
What new ways of workings come to bear?
Um, there's been a lot of conversation, of course, in the public discord
around the role of tariffs, right?
And whether the 60 percent tariffs That had been suggested for China apply
that has a big significant financial implication and then really the thing
that I heard a lot of Conversation around is DOGE and what the effect of doge
is and doge if you don't know is the Department of Government Efficiency Gonna
be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
And a real concern about what that means for the EPA and Um, and the
funding for the EPA, the, uh, the impact that that has, because again,
one of the themes that comes through, and I talked about it early on and it
comes through here at the end, is this need for transparency and alignment.
Without the federal regulatory system working the EPA working effectively
the states step up And the challenge when the states step up they each
are applying different regulations.
There's 50 regulations that potentially have to be monitored understood complied
with um, Nicholas George when I talked with him a bit and in fact, we may um,
you're going to want to go over and look at the youtube video for that one
because we had some A number of great conversations, number of things that
came through, um, was just one of the challenges, of course, is you can have
something that is maybe a state puts in place a regulation, but it's actually
doesn't comply with a federal regulation.
So we get a lot of misalignment.
So that was a conversation that came through with everyone, whether it was
Mike Gruber, Nicholas George, Steve Caldeira, is this whole concern a frankly,
by the way, not just those guys, but people across the organization that
were there, the several hundred people about what the effect is of watching
and waiting for the new administration, the new rules that are coming in,
how the EPA is going to be funded and frankly, what it means for business.
So, um, Those are my themes.
I really, again, I really encourage you to head over to our YouTube channel.
So you can just search for The Chemical Show podcast on YouTube and you're
going to find it or the direct link is youtube.com/thechemicalshowpodcast,
and you will find all of our episodes, some special things.
And, as it relates to the conversations I had at HCPA's annual meeting, you're
going to find a number of interviews with HCPA leaders right there.
It's short and sweet, 10 to 15 minutes each.
So go in and listen and learn more about what those priorities are and
how, um, that you're taking effect and how they are affecting the chemical
industry, all the other products and industries that are part of HCPA and more.
So that is it for today.
Thank you for listening.
Keep listening, keep following, keep sharing, and we will
talk with you again soon.