July 23, 2026

The article by Alexaner Gosten, Beate Kummer, Uwe Lahl, Ella Stengler and Barbara Zeschmar-Lahl on the topic ‘PFAS: Special regulations for recycled materials are detrimental to the circular economy’ has been published in the journal Müll und Abfall 7, 2026.

The article outlines the current reasons and efforts to ban or regulate the PFAS group of substances in the EU. Various limit values are proposed for monitoring purposes. In this context, the Member States and the ECHA’s committees are proposing special provisions for recycled materials. Specifically, the limit values for paper are to be permanently suspended, and a transition period of 23.5 years is to be granted for plastics as a whole. The authors consider these exemptions to be inappropriate and not in the interests of the circular economy.

Below you will find a link to the order form at Erich Schmidt Verlag.

July 17, 2026

Plastics have radically transformed our everyday lives over the last 100 years, though not always for the better. The journalist Saabira Chaudhuri recently investigated when and why promises on recycling were made (Consumed – How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic). And why not a single one was kept. The most recent major commitment to recycling was made in 2018 by leading global companies, which together accounted for around 20 per cent of the world’s plastic packaging. They signed up to the “New Plastics Economy Global Commitment”, a voluntary initiative launched jointly by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the end of October 2018 at the 5th “Our Ocean” conference in Bali. According to the commitment, 100 per cent of plastic packaging was to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. This promise, too, has been broken..

A recycling pledge was also made in connection with the Green Dot. It is interesting to note that, to this day, there are no reliable figures on how much recycled plastic is actually produced each year. Nor is it known how much ‘virgin plastic’ has been saved as a result. This would be roughly equivalent to a car manufacturer estimating the number of cars it produces annually using an approximate factor. All of this, of course, has financial, but also technical and polymer-chemical reasons. These will be presented in a keynote speech  by Prof. Dr. Uwe Lahl at the 38^th VDI/ITAD Conference on Thermal Waste Treatment 2026 in Würzburg on 22 September 2026.

Below you will find the link to the VDI website for the event and to the programme leaflet (PDF).

Note: This text was revised on 29 August 2026.

May 13, 2026

On behalf of a plastics recycler, the authors undertook an investigation to determine the chemical composition and general formulation of additives used in the mechanical recycling of post-consumer plastics. Initial findings were published in 2025 in the German journal Müll und Abfall (see News from 11 July 2025 and website of Erich-Schmidt-Verlag).

Given the topicality of this subject and the upcoming discussions at EU level, including on the circular economy, we have produced a working paper for all interested parties, which can be downloaded here free of charge.

• Lahl U., Zeschmar-Lahl, B. (2026): Additives for plastics recycling – Need for more transparency. Zenodo.
  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20157820

May 6, 2026

Prof. Dr. Uwe Lahl has given a presentation at IFAT on 4 May 2026 in Munich as part of the session Removal and destruction of PFAS from contaminated water streams by adsorption on activated carbon and subsequent reactivation of the saturated activated carbon on the topic Current status of EU chemicals regulation – the particular significance of substance grouping, using PFAS as an example (in German).

As long as 20 years ago, we highlighted the particular risks posed by the group of organic fluorinated compounds (Fricke & Lahl). At that time, the hazardous individual compounds were known as PFOS or PFOA. These have since been banned. However, the substitutes, which were taken from the same group of substances, have subsequently proved to be no less hazardous. Today, exposure levels in humans are so high that scientists are sounding the alarm. On the one hand, the presentation looks back to examine how this situation could have arisen. On the other hand, it also looks ahead and describes the efforts of European legislators to pull the emergency brake.

Below you will find a link to download the presentation.

April 27, 2026

Prof. Dr. Uwe Lahl will give a presentation at IFAT on 4 May 2026 in Munich on the Blue Stage (B2) as part of the session Removal and destruction of PFAS from contaminated water streams by adsorption on activated carbon and subsequent reactivation of the saturated activated carbon on the topic Current status of EU chemicals regulation – the particular significance of substance grouping, using PFAS as an example (in German).

As long as 20 years ago, we highlighted the particular risks posed by the group of organic fluorinated compounds (Fricke & Lahl). At that time, the hazardous individual compounds were known as PFOS or PFOA. These have since been banned. However, the substitutes, which were taken from the same group of substances, have subsequently proved to be no less hazardous. Today, exposure levels in humans are so high that scientists are sounding the alarm. On the one hand, the presentation looks back to examine how this situation could have arisen. On the other hand, it also looks ahead and describes the efforts of European legislators to pull the emergency brake.

Below you will find the link to the event’s website.

April 20, 2026

Twenty years ago, exempting polymers from the registration requirement under REACH was a political compromise. As part of its 2020 Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), the European Commission has also announced a comprehensive revision of the REACH Regulation. Among other things, the registration requirement is to be extended in future to certain polymers of concern (PoC). The criteria for classification as PoC are currently still under discussion.

At the Regulatory Developments @ Regulatory Summit Europe 2026 on April 20, 2026, in Brussels, Prof. Dr. Uwe Lahl gives a presentation entitled What are the concerns around plastics and why do we need to regulate them?

Given the topical nature of this issue and the upcoming discussions at EU level, we have produced a background paper for anyone interested, which can be downloaded free of charge here. kann.

• Lahl, U., & Zeschmar-Lahl, B. (2026). What are the concerns around plastics and why do we need to regulate them? Regulatory Developments @ Regulatory Summit Europe 2026, Brussels. Zenodo.
  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19633696

February 20, 2026

Twenty years ago, exempting polymers from the registration requirement under REACH was a political compromise. As part of its 2020 Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), the European Commission has also announced a comprehensive revision of the REACH Regulation. Among other things, the registration requirement is to be extended in future to certain polymers of concern (PoC). The criteria for classification as PoC are currently still under discussion.

At the Regulatory Developments @ Regulatory Summit Europe 2026 on April 20, 2026, in Brussels,
Prof. Dr. Uwe Lahl will give a presentation entitled What are the concerns around plastics and why do we need to regulate them? He will look into the questions:

• What scientific reasons are there today for supplementing REACH now?
• What could a stepwise integration look like?

Further details can be found on the event website.