The following updates to WERCSmart are available as of the beginning of business April 7, 2021:
Kit Registrations – Transportation Options
A fix is being implemented with regard to the transportation options available for Kit registrations. Kits did not have an option to indicate the Kit was not regulated for transport in any manner for any mode of transport. This option will now be properly available.
Account No Retailer – All Registrations
In late 2020, all registrations by default were associated with “No Retailer” to allow for ease of inclusion in Kits and/or Battery-containing products. This reduces the step that you would have to take within the registration process.
A fix has been implemented to prohibit archiving of “No Retailer” from any product registration, as this is now a minimum requirement for each registration.
Registration Validation for Pesticide Ingredients
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces pesticide products available to the consumer, UL has implemented further validation within all formulated registrations to ensure proper classification of a product as possibly being a pesticide registration type.
After providing ingredients in a registration, UL will validate the entries to look for ingredients that may be within pesticide products. If an ingredient is present, a warning will display advising of the ingredient’s presence in the product and request validation that the product is not covered under EPA Pesticide regulations. Or, you are provided an opportunity to adjust the Product Type to provide detailed EPA and State registration data for the product.
UPC Container Type – Liquids
When the primary physical state of the registration is “Liquid”, at the UPC-level data the container type options will no longer include aerosol container types.
Meijer – Registration Scope Expansion
Meijer is expanding their product scope requirements to now include the following product types, in addition to the current formulated registrations:
Electronics
Battery-Containing Products
What's Coming
ULWERCSmart.com - same functionality with new streamlined design
The WERCSmart login website, ulwercsmart.com, will be updated on April 13. The refreshed design streamlines access to the product registration login and popular customer support resources.
Document Reader
WERCSmart customers will have the option to provide a GHS Safety Data Sheet (SDS) early in the product registration process so the data may be obtained from the SDS uploaded document and prepopulate the areas of the product registration for you. This would include data found within Sections 2, 3, and 9 of the SDS.
Portfolio Viewer
A new tool is being developed that will utilize your account’s WERCSmart data and provide information to you with regard to the assessment data for your product catalog. Additionally, some Private Label reports will be available for review as well with regard to your product performance at certain retailers. Using this tool, you will be able to see the waste classification information and other assessment data to allow you to increase the management capabilities of your portfolio.
Product Registration Home Page Revisions
We will be revising the Product Registration Home Page to include contact information for our Agency customers, contact for General Support, as well as “At-a-glance” subscription statuses. The Product Information graphic is being removed as this was not an actionable area.
In addition, the filter specific to "Canceled" registration has been moved to the “More Filters” area.
Suspended Registration Reminders
In our hectic schedules, by early morning our “to-do” lists have gone by the wayside. Many times the daily list will include follow-up and completion of items that may be suspended during the assessment process. Over time, we tend to forget about them as our daily priorities shift.
UL will be providing email reminders and additional filters on the Home Page My Product table to further assist you in managing your workload. Reminders for outstanding suspended registrations will be provided at the time of suspension, 60, 90, and 100 Days.
When a suspension reaches 120 days without any updates or resubmissions, the product registration will automatically be archived and cannot be reinstated. Within the My Products table, when a registration is suspended, there will be an option to extend the suspension time to reduce instances of automatic archiving of the registration as we all know sometimes there are internal dependencies to getting information that is outside of our control.
Data Tier Programs
Meijer and Staples will be implementing Data Tier Consent / Chemical Policy programs in the near future. Should you have registrations associated with either of these retailers, within specific categories of product types, upon login you will be prompted to review and update Data Tier Consents for each retailer.
Data Tier Consent is managed in the Retail Partner area within WERCSmart’s Registration Home Page Menu.
– The WERCSmart Team at UL
