FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Sears Holdings has announced plans to begin phasing out products and packaging containing the toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, commonly known as vinyl.

Sears and Kmart join Wal-Mart and Target, in reducing and phasing out PVC in products and packaging.

Target's policy was just announced last month.

Sears Holdings, the publicly traded parent of Kmart and Sears, Roebuck and Co., is the nation's sixth-largest retailer with over $50 billion in annual revenues and approximately 3,800 retail stores in the United States and Canada.

The company has announced it is working to reduce and phase out PVC in its packaging and merchandise, including encouraging vendors to label their PVC-free merchandise.

Additionally, Sears is working to identify safer, more sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to PVC and incorporate them into the design and manufacturing process for private label merchandise and packaging.

"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," said Lois Gibbs, founder of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. "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."