PERSISTENT POLLUTANTS
Detection of PFAS pollution expected to increase ▸ Discovery of more PFAScontaminated drinking water is almost a given. ▸ US states are likely to adopt their own limits for PFAS as the Environmental Protection Agency decides whether to act.
Hot spots of drinking water contaminated with toxic likely trigger more calls from the public for cleaning fluorocarbons in Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, and up PFAS contamination, Yingling says. the US grabbed headlines last year. In 2019, expect In the US, states facing contamination problems scientists to look for—and find—more areas polluted will be under pressure to act on their own. That’s bewith nonpolymeric per- and polyfluoroalkyl substanccause the acting head of the Environmental Protection es (PFAS) in those countries and across the world. Agency, Andrew Wheeler, has said the EPA is weighing “It’s going to seem to the public like the problem is only the need for a federal drinking-water limit for cergetting worse,” says Ginny Yingling, tain widespread PFAS. F F F FO O a research scientist at the Minnesota Researchers and regulators are S F3C Department of Health and a PFAS increasingly concerned that these OH expert. But scientists will just be substances are spreading into the food F F F F F F identifying existing contamination supply through polluted water and Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid through better analytical methods, the use of treated sewage sludge to says Yingling, who coleads the US Interstate Technolimprove soils. Australia warned people living where ogy and Regulatory Council’s PFAS team. drinking water is tainted with PFAS from nearby military installations not to eat leafy greens harvested from Scientists are also likely to identify additional PFAS besides well-known legacy compounds, such as perfluo- gardens or home-raised poultry, eggs, beef, or lamb. In 2019, Yingling expects to see advances in treatrooctanoic acid and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid, that ment technology for PFAS-tainted water supplies, movwere used industrially for decades, Yingling adds. Data ing beyond today’s standard of activated carbon filters. indicate that at least some of these legacy chemicals, Meanwhile, financial liability is expanding for which have been found in people’s blood, can cause militaries and companies that make or use PFAS—or reproductive, developmental, liver, and immunological effects in laboratory animals. Few toxicity data are avail- formerly did so. Utilities are seeking money from polluters to pay for cleaning up PFAS-contaminated able on many PFAS that replaced the older ones. drinking-water supplies.—CHERYL HOGUE More widespread detection of these chemicals will
POLYMERS
Tide will turn against single-use plastic With pressure mounting globally to increase plastic recycling and ban single-use plastics, 2019 promises to be a tricky year for polymer manufacturers. More than 60 countries have introduced—or plan to introduce—some form of ban on single-use plastics in a bid to curb the 8 million or so metric tons per year of plastic flowing into the world’s oceans. And manufacturers face a shift in customer behavior after more than 260 companies that consume 20% of the world’s plastic packaging voluntarily agreed last year to step up their recycling efforts. The drive for plastic bans and recycling will fundamentally change the petrochemical industry, Ashish Chitalia, a principal analyst with the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, told journalists in a recent online presentation. The European Union aims to be at the forefront of the drive. It recently decided to ban the 10 single-use items most likely to end up on European beaches, including straws and cotton swabs, by 2021. Both the EU and the UK are also contemplating a plastic tax. The UK plan would
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | JANUARY 14, 2019
Takeaways ▸ More than 60 countries have or plan some form of ban on single-use plastics. ▸ UK plastic producers may pay up to $1.3 billion annually for their products to be recycled. ▸ Polyethylene and polypropylene face upheaval.
require plastic producers to pay the full cost of managing plastic waste, estimated at up to £1.0 billion ($1.3 billion) annually. Polyolefin growth typically exceeds economic growth, but starting in 2025, increased recycling will cause it to dip below economic growth, Wood Mackenzie forecasts. By 2035, demand may actually start falling. Polyethylene and polypropylene, which together make up more than 60% of all plastic sold, are not widely recycled and thus face more market upheaval than polyethylene terephthalate, the recycling leader. Up to 40% of polyethylene goes to single-use consumer products. In the 1967 film The Graduate, the lead character, played by Dustin Hoffman, is famously advised to forge a career in plastics. “Well, Dustin Hoffman —Paul Hodges, wouldn’t be told to get into chair, International plastics anymore. He’d be eChem told to go into recycled plastics,” says Paul Hodges, chair of the London-based consulting firm International eChem. Still, for the near term, trends such as population growth and escalating incomes will continue to drive up consumption of virgin plastic, Wood Mackenzie predicts.—ALEX SCOTT
“Dustin Hoffman wouldn’t be told to get into plastics anymore. He’d be told to go into recycled plastics.”
C R E D I T: S H UT T E RSTO CK
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Takeaways
