Decontamination of landfill waste leads to increase in toxic chemicals, says study

PFAS, often found in landfills, are a family of about 15,000 human-made chemicals and can take thousands of years to break down in the environment. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Processes intended to decontaminate noxious liquid landfill waste before it enters rivers and sewers have been found to increase the levels of some of the worst toxic chemicals, a study has shown.

Landfills are well known to be a main source of PFAS forever chemicals – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – but the new study shows that the treatment plants designed to clean up the liquid waste can instead boost the levels of banned PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS, in some cases by as much as 1,335%.