POPFREE Industry - A competence centre for a circular PFAS-free industry

Purpose and goal:

A main goal of the project was to write and submit an application, addressing important challenges needed to be tackled to reach a circular and PFAS-free industry. Due to limited regulation of PFAS, consisting of more than 10 000 unique substances of which many identified as of high health and environmental concern, few companies have known much about their uses and applications.

Partners in the project have worked hard to map their uses or have by other means increased their understanding, which was also an aim. In January 2023 a proposal for a broad EU restriction was submitted to ECHA. Expected results and effects:

WPs in the project was (1) Management and communication, (2) Mapping, (3) CoCreation, (4) Application writing, and (5) Consortium agreement and steering group. All objectives related to these WPs were managed, and an application was submitted to RE:Source. It was found to be too challenging to manage Vinnova’s requirements of co-financing, and a 10-years’ time frame.

The restriction proposal gives a few years for a phase out. We managed to involve new stakeholders and increased the awareness through communication activities. A new PFAS screening methodology was developed and used. Approach and implementation:

The consortium consisted of companies with diverse PFAS substitution needs including waste management, researchers, one authority and one NGO, a combination which was found very fruitful. Meetings during spring focused on different themes as means of knowledge sharing and in autumn a workshop was arranged with partners and other interested stakeholders, that allowed networking and learning and input for the application.

Material provided by RISE has been used by several partners in their dialogue with suppliers and partners have got support in their mapping/phase-out work.