Waste Incineration - Source or Sink for PFAS?

Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are used in many areas of industrial society due to their water- and oil-repellent properties:

In simple terms, this group of substances can be divided into polymeric and non-polymeric PFAS. The polymeric PFAS group includes, among others, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is used in numerous industrial and everyday applications, for example in medical devices, electric vehicles, electronics and semiconductors, but also in cookware, where it is better known under the trade name Teflon.

 

Non-polymeric PFAS are used, for example, as a coating on baking paper and pizza boxes or as fluorinated gases, known as F-gases, as refrigerants in mobile and stationary systems. After their lifetime, the products end up as waste, depending on their segment of use and aggregate state (solid, liquid or gaseous), either in municipal (waste) or hazardous waste incineration, or they are collected separately and recycled.

 

In principle, it is right and important to identify every source of PFAS emissions and to quantify these emissions using suitable measurement methods. Based on the quantities emitted, appropriate technical and regulatory measures can then be taken to reduce emissions. This applies in particular to the areas of production and utilisation, as these differ by several orders of magnitude from those of waste incineration.

 

Based on the studies reviewed in this article, it could be stated that the waste incineration represents a sink for PFAS-containing waste streams, as fewer PFAS are emitted than enter the plants.

 

Article in German language (There is a free trial available)

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