9 February 2026
Eliminating PFAS: 3 questions for Benjamin Denis, Head of Public Affairs at Séché Environnement
How can "forever pollutants" be permanently eliminated? As PFAS accumulate in the environment, only one technology has been scientifically proven to be effective: incineration in a facility dedicated to hazardous waste. With a destruction rate of over 99.99%.
Why do PFAS require specific treatment?
Benjamin Denis: PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" because their carbon-fluorine bond makes them highly resistant to natural degradation. Found everywhere—in textiles, firefighting foams, pesticides—they accumulate in soil, water, and organisms. However, it is important to distinguish between two families of PFAS:
- Polymers are mainly found in consumer goods (textiles, packaging, kitchen utensils, electronic equipment, etc.). They are effectively treated by non-hazardous waste incinerators, where conditions allow for their mineralization.
- Non-polymers are found in polluted soil, industrial waste, fluorinated gases, pesticides, and water filtration systems. Since 2026, drinking water regulations have encouraged local authorities and manufacturers to install activated carbon filters, which, once saturated with PFAS, themselves become hazardous waste. But it is not enough to capture PFAS; they must also be eliminated to ensure that they do not contaminate the environment again. Only thermal destruction at very high temperatures can break their carbon-fluorine bond.
How does incineration destroy these "indestructible" molecules?
BD: Hazardous waste incinerators, which are designed and operated to destroy all hazardous substances, provide conditions conducive to the elimination of PFAS: high temperatures in incineration furnaces, sufficiently long residence times, post-combustion of flue gases, and high-performance flue gas treatment. At these temperatures, the carbon-fluorine bond breaks and causes the mineralization of PFAS in the form of CO2 and fluorine. These are then captured during flue gas treatment or stabilized in the solid combustion residues. This is not a transformation or displacement: it is permanent elimination.
Has its effectiveness been proven for PFAS?
BD: Starting in 2022, the Séché Environnement group conducted industrial tests on all its facilities to demonstrate the effectiveness of mineralization. We conducted tests with waste containing up to 59% PFAS, including firefighting foam. As recommended by INERIS (the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks), we adopted the protocol defined by the United Nations for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): we calculated the DE (Destruction Efficiency) and DRE (Destruction and Removal Efficiency) by measuring the presence of PFAS in all solid, liquid, and gaseous residues from the incineration process. Result: 99.99% of PFAS are destroyed.
The incineration of hazardous waste is currently the only industrial technology that has been scientifically proven to be effective against PFAS. As recently highlighted by SYPRED and SYVED, the professional associations of hazardous waste management industries.
If the solution is proven, why isn't it widely used?
BD: That's the paradox. Its effectiveness has been established, but the industry is struggling to develop due to the lack of a stable and clear regulatory framework. No limit values have yet been officially defined for PFAS concentrations in water discharges into the natural environment. Without harmonized standards, everything depends on each Regional Directorate for Environment, Development, and Housing (DREAL), which creates a degree of legal uncertainty and distortions of competition between regions.
There should also be thresholds defining when contaminated waste can no longer be recycled and must be destroyed. Currently, sewage sludge or heavily contaminated polluted soil can be used as fill or spread on agricultural land.
These changes are expected at the European level, but not for several years. Until waste producers are required to direct their waste streams to specialized facilities, the volumes treated will remain marginal and PFAS will continue to enter production cycles and be released into the environment.
Other issues are already emerging, such as traceability. One could imagine a kind of "passport" for each product, which would make it possible to identify PFAS throughout their life cycle and easily direct waste to the right channels.
In the meantime, the solution for eliminating these notorious "forever pollutants" on an industrial scale does exist. In fact, we have had it at our disposal for a long time: hazardous waste incineration.
