Current State of knowledge and challenges regarding PFAS in waste management

Introduction

Report resulting from a collaborative project – June 2026

A collaborative study led by ASTEE, to which RECORD contributed by providing funding and co-leading the project, alongside ADEME, AMORCE, ATEE, FNADE, SYCTOM and VEOLIA.

Project supported by ADEME

Summary

PFAS now pose a major health and environmental concern due to their persistence in the environment and their presence in many everyday products. As part of the work of a ‘PFAS and Waste’ working group led by ASTEE, the participants publish this literature review entitled ‘Current status and issues relating to PFAS in waste management’. This study aims to consolidate the current state of knowledge regarding the presence of PFAS in waste, their behaviour in different matrices and their fate within waste treatment processes. It sheds light on the main sources of PFAS in the incoming and outgoing streams of waste management systems and highlights the challenges associated with different management methods: recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, energy recovery and landfill.

Against a backdrop of rapidly evolving scientific and regulatory knowledge, this work emphasises the need to improve understanding, ensure the traceability of waste streams and adapt waste management processes in order to better understand the movement of PFAS within the waste chain.