A pizza can sit in its box for twenty minutes. Some of the substances used to make that box grease-resistant can stay in the environment for decades.
On 12 August 2026, the first provisions of the EU's new regulation on packaging and packaging waste came into force. Among them: limits on PFAS in packaging intended to come into contact with food.
PFAS are a family of thousands of synthetic chemical substances. They hold up extremely well against water, heat, and grease — properties that have made them useful in a vast range of products, from non-stick pans to waterproof fabrics to food packaging.
The very same resistance that makes them useful is exactly what creates the problem.
The chemical bonds in PFAS break down with enormous difficulty. Some of these substances can therefore persist in the environment for a long time and accumulate in living organisms. That is where the nickname "forever chemicals" comes from.
In food packaging, they have been used primarily to stop oil and grease from seeping through paper and cardboard: fast-food wrappers, takeaway containers, and other packaging designed for fatty foods are among the items affected.
The new regulation does not mean that from 12 August every pizza box sold in Europe is suddenly PFAS-free. It sets instead threshold levels above which food-contact packaging cannot be placed on the European market.
This is only one part of a much larger reform.
The new European rules aim to reduce the overall quantity of packaging, increase its reuse, and ensure that by 2030 all packaging on the European market is recyclable in an economically sustainable way.
The pizza box tells the story of the contradiction at the heart of the problem.
It is an object designed to be used once.
To make it more resistant for those few minutes, we used substances designed to last almost forever.
