Material framework quantifies how PFAS chemicals accumulate in US residences
Material flow shows that the ‘forever chemicals’ in paints will increasingly enter landfills as structures reach the end of their lives.
US researchers report that the paint acts as a long-term reservoir for PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), embedded in buildings for decades before entering the waste stream.
In the paper, Delayed emissions dominate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances release from architectural coatings in US residential buildings, a team from the University of Alabama, Rice University and Leiden University, share how they developed a spatially resolved material flow model tracking PFAS in architectural paint between 2000 and 2060.
They estimate that around 565t of PFAS remained in use in 2020 – around 47 times the annual emissions from painted surfaces.
As new paint is typically applied over existing coatings rather than replacing them, most PFAS remains in buildings until demolition, when it is transferred to landfill. The model presented in Chem Circularity projects landfill emissions increasing more than 25-fold by 2060 as legacy stocks enter the waste stream.
The researchers say identifying chemical inventories before construction materials enter waste or secondary-material streams will be essential to support a circular built environment.
