PFAS: Accelerating a decisive, responsible transition to sustainable alternatives

The need to abandon ‘forever chemicals’ has never been clearer – an imperative confirmed by scientists, industry leaders, NGOs, and policymakers at recent events such as the Royal Society of Chemistry’s PFAS Alternatives Workshop in London, and the AMI Plastics PFAS workshop in Brussels.

The transition from PFAS has significant public support, too. The Royal Society of Chemistry and YouGov found that 88 percent of people in the UK think it’s ‘very important’ to control PFAS in food, drinking water, and the environment. Respondents viewed manufacturers and the UK government as most responsible for reducing PFAS. However, overall trust in these organisations was low.

Viable alternatives to PFAS include advanced polyaryletherketones (PAEK/PEEK) polymers, siloxane coatings, bioengineered mono-fluorinated materials, and metal-organic frameworks. These options can stand in for many of the uses of PFAS. However, real-world adoption is impeded by technological, regulatory, and value chain challenges. To move forward, the whole ecosystem – from market incentives and public trust – needs to evolve in lockstep.

Catalyse collective action

The PFAS challenge isn’t a chemical substitution problem – it’s a systems problem. Fixing it will take the combined efforts of industry leaders, innovative organisations, and policymakers.

Industry leaders have a role to play in allocating R&D spend to non-PFAS options, especially for high-value applications with less mature alternatives. They can then gather and share data to encourage wider adoption, and publish information, roadmaps, and audit results in the interests of trust and transparency. Smaller, innovative manufacturers are key to exploring new options and use cases.

The Bottle Collective, which we lead with PulPac, is developing the first Dry Molded Fiber bottle to reduce plastic use and move towards more sustainable technology. Dry Molded Fiber uses less water and energy than equivalent plastic products, produces minimal waste, and is also recyclable. The Bottle Collective showcases how innovators, industry leaders – such as Diageo, and even competitors can join hands to solve tough challenges in tandem.

Policymakers can incentivise the transition through a carrot and stick approach. First, the carrot: easing the transition by setting temporary, reviewable exemptions – ‘dynamic derogations’ – for areas where alternatives aren’t yet feasible and rewarding PFAS-free innovation through tax credits or green bonds. Then, the stick; polluter-pays measures, and mandating data transparency and harmonized reports on performance and environmental impact.

Working in tandem, these core stakeholder groups can develop alternatives to PFAS that preserve the environment, ensure safety, and, additionally, offer greater flexibility of supply.

Rewrite the standards

Despite the availability of robust, promising alternatives to PFAS, current procurement standards and regulatory frameworks focus on PFAS-by-default specifications. Qualifying and re-standardising new options are slow, costly processes. For example, qualifying a new seal material for LNG transport, or a new membrane for fuel cells, can take years. This lag is compounded by fragmented data on lifecycle impacts and supply chain transparency. In technically demanding sectors (such as green hydrogen, batteries, and pharmaceuticals), alternatives require further qualification.

By shifting the focus to functionality, policymakers can help to break the bottlenecks and make it easier to adopt alternatives. Manufacturers, innovators, and policymakers can jointly and regularly review progress, adjusting standards across the ecosystem to support future development.

Embed tools for transparency

Most manufacturers only have partial visibility of upstream PFAS use or alternatives. These information blind spots can lead to missed innovation opportunities.

Enhanced supply chain mapping, digital tools such as product passports, and lifecycle assessments (LCAs) are essential to demonstrating safety across the whole lifecycle, not just at point of use. Inputting this data into pre-competitive data-sharing platforms could support a more informed ecosystem, while third-party data audits and voluntary disclosures build trust. Substitution roadmaps, with milestones and third-party verification, provide inspiring blueprints for progress.

Equipped with harmonized, transparent data on performance and environmental impact from manufacturers, policymakers could understand macro-level societal costs as well as product-level granularity, supporting regulatory development.

Fit for the future

Circular economy principles are essential to avoid burden-shifting or repeating the mistakes of the past. Next-generation solutions must build in recyclability, minimal emissions, and safe degradation from the start. Policymakers can provide incentives and rewards for manufacturers and other organisations such as logistics companies that embed circular principles into their operations and supply chains. Expectations relating to responsible waste disposal and resource use have already been mandated by the Environment Act and The Waste (Circular Economy) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, with more expected to land.

PFAS alternatives offer a chance to collaboratively redesign the relationship between material performance, human health, environmental sustainability, and supply chain resilience. Those who shift the dynamic between these elements will shape a safe, sustainable chemicals market that increases both the health of consumers and the wealth of the ecosystem.