Dec. 13, 2007 Sears and Kmart are the latest retailers to promise a companywide phaseout of PVC in products and packaging. The move comes in response to calls from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), which waged successful anti-PVC campaigns against Target and Apple earlier this year.

Sears Holdings, corporate owner of Sears and Kmart, says it is working to reduce and phase out PVC and will encourage its vendors to label all PVC-free merchandise. In addition, the company aims to identify "safer, more sustainable and cost-effective" alternatives to PVC and and to incorporate them into the design and manufacturing process for private-label merchandise and packaging. (View the new policy here.)

"When you mention Sears to someone, especially at Christmas time, it elicits memories of the Sears catalogue and toy shopping; Sears holds a place in America's collective memory," says Lois Gibbs, founder of CHEJ. "It is fitting, right, and proper then, that Sears Holdings has been willing not only to recognize the potential dangers and harm caused by some of the products it currently sells, but has made the right decision to begin ridding its stores of this toxic PVC material."

Sears' holiday catalogue came under fire from another green group last week for unsustainable paper sourcing policies.