Legal group campaign for Walmart and Colgate to rethink ‘plastic pollution crisis’ policies

May 16, 2025

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has launched a campaign aimed at questioning Colgate-Palmolive and Walmart on their plastic packaging policies. 

The conservative non-profit group, based in Virginia, is sponsoring two shareholder proposals for the spring season of corporate annual meetings at both Colgate-Palmolive and Walmart.  

It claims that recent increases in resolutions focusing on reducing waste in plastics packaging are “attacks on the hydrocarbons industry” and “fake environmentalism.” 

Therefore, it has requested that firms take a “more objective” look at how they assess the costs and benefits of plastic packaging. 

“All we are asking is for stronger and more objective scientific and economic analysis of the issue, rather than the companies capitulating to the demands of pressure groups operating under the flimsy cover of their biased ‘plastics pollution’ reports,” said Paul Chesser, director of corporate accountability, NLPC. 

At Colgate’s annual shareholder meeting on May 9, Chesser raised questions about the recyclability of its 100% high density polyethylene toothpaste tubes, and argued that using recycled plastics in many products is costly without providing environmental benefits. 

“Colgate pays significantly more for feel-good measures that accomplish no benefit for the environment,” he told shareholders. “The company must undertake serious scientific and economic analysis of its plastics policies instead of following a fact-free activist driven agenda.”  

NLPC sent a 14-page solicitation memo to Colgate-Palmolive investors ahead of the meeting to explain the thinking behind its call for “stronger scientific and economic analysis “in plastics packaging policies. 

Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for June 5, and the NPLC will again raise a proposal to ask Walmart to revisit its plastic package policies and  “implement scientific and economic analyses” intended to counter what the NLPC calls an “alleged plastics pollution crisis”.  The proposal argues that “plastic pollution is primarily the result of poor disposal practices, not production.” 

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