An Urgent Matter: PFAS
Michiel Scheffer ??
President of the Board of the European Innovation Council. Please do not send me research proposals, service offers or job applications. Invitations to speak please at least three months in advance.
I have started two limited companies on november 1st 2019.
Dr. Michiel Scheffer Policy in Innovation BV, for strategic and political advisory and advocacy services
Polisema BV as investment vehicle in innovative SMEs in sustainable textile technologies
Policy in Innovation BV had on november its first client: VNG Vereniging Nederlandse Gemeenten, the Netherlands Association of Local Authorities. The assignment is to advocate and represents the VNG in the national concertation on diffuse contaminants such as PFAS, a precursor to PTFE (e.g. Lycra and Goretex). The assignment has reached a first success: the Minister for the Environment has proposed to higher the threshold for free transfer of soil from 0,1mg/kilo to 0,8mg/kilo. In the next months the Task Force in which I represent the VNG will be in charge to solve bottlenecks.
The PFAS issue raises also issue about the persistence of this substance. In polymers every benefit has a downside. A water and oil repellant polymer, strong and elastic has a logical consequence that it is not easily dissolved, burned, broken down. This is not a problem as long as it is not dispersed. But it is. It raise thus questions to what extend alternatives exist for PFAS, in textiles PTFE is at stake. Possibly we should revert to a smaller number of polymers, but to stretch their properties. A broader issue is the use of SVHC in textiles and plastics. A road map is certainly needed and a pro-active agenda of research and development in order not to get wet.
