For decades, the people living in the Swedish town of Kallinge got their tap water from a treatment plant that turned out to be contaminated with harmful PFAS chemicals. They sued the municipally owned water company for damages – and won. But the water company is appealing the verdict, arguing that high levels of PFAS should not be considered a personal injury.
A new test study found chemicals of concern in popular non-plastic disposable products, many of which are marketed with unsubstantiated and misleading claims of being green, natural and “100% biodegradable”.
EU authorities recently reported that the production and use of hazardous chemicals in everyday products have been reduced by 97 percent in the EU. However, the official registry for chemical volumes doesn’t show any reduction at all.
Experts agree that the data in the registry is off. The problem is that important regulatory actions designed to protect EU citizens from hazardous chemicals are based on this incorrect data.
The third time’s the charm for the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, who have stepped up their efforts and are communicating their actions better in the Integrated Regulatory Strategy annual report for 2020, compared to the two previous ones.
During this webinar, Gunnar Thorsén, test expert from IVL, will provide an overview of the most important issues concerning testing for PFAS, for example the different types of tests and how to interpret the results.
Chemical recycling is a golden opportunity to meet the future demand of recycled materials. It also provides ample opportunity for making a lot of money. This combination makes it tempting for companies to take shortcuts in order to satisfy the market, often resulting in values like sustainability and transparency being thrown out the window.
We believe that recycling, including chemical recycling, is necessary for the further development of a viable circular economy. However, the chemical recycling technologies employed must support circularity – not only in theory, but also in practice.
The circular economy forces us to focus on the hazardous properties of chemicals. To neglect this and instead talk about the risk of exposure is close to absurd. Surprisingly, some parts of the chemical industry still do this. It’s time for a change of mind.
