Ecology is working to protect Washingtonians from PFAS. Starting in February 2023, PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, will be restricted in four types of food packaging: wraps and liners, food boats, pizza boxes, and plates.
That means we’ll reduce Washingtonian’s exposure to these toxic, persistent chemicals. But there's still a lot of work to do to make food packaging safer. This is just the first step in an ongoing process to protect human health and the environment.
We’re starting work to find safer replacements for PFAS in six other types of food packaging. Stakeholder and public input is crucial to build on our process for the next assessment.
Join our public webinars to share ideas
Please join us March 23 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. PST as we wrap up the first assessment. Our team will review the results and answer questions about our approach to find safer alternatives for the first four types of packaging.
Then we’ll come back together on April 14 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. PST to launch the second assessment. Bring input and suggestions. We’ll discuss how we can improve our process to find alternatives in the remaining types of food packaging being considered.
The next phase in the search for alternatives
Finding all the information we need is a challenge. To ban PFAS in a certain type of packaging, we need to find safer options, make sure businesses can pay for those options, and find products for sale with enough quantity. In the first assessment, we found some alternatives that were safer, but didn’t perform as well, were more expensive, or were not available broadly enough on the market.
We’re hopeful that some of these products will be more available and more comparable in price in the future—that’s why we’re kicking off the next assessment now. We encourage stakeholders and the public to share input, both during these webinars and throughout our process.
Find more information about the assessments and our upcoming webinars on the PFAS in Food Packaging Alternatives Assessment webpage.