PFAS Regulations
So we are having several customers reach out to us about the new PFAS laws going into effect in NY and CA starting beg of 2023 and the others that slowly start thereafter. We are now having several major customers ask us to show compliance- completely understandable. The issue we are having is with our packaging vendors. They feel that they should not have to be in compliance because they already comply with the FDA, and therefore proving this other information should not be necessary.
Are we the only ones dealing with this? Has anyone else had any pushback?
They have to be in compliance to the rule if they sell in CA or NY or sell online
One suggestion - so them this example: find lawsuits made by people with the CA Prop 65 rule. There are people who have and will find any company selling on-line then sue them for not complying to these state specific rules.
Costco is requiring the same for 2023 for ALL of their suppliers
We've included the requirement for our packaging vendors and they must provide evidence from a 3rd party that there packaging doesn't contain them. I expect some push back as it will come as a surprise for most if not all of our vendors
Explain that you must meet your customer requirements, and you'd like to continue using your current packaging, but if they don't comply, you will have no choice but take your business elsewhere
I'm surprised people are having an issue with packaging companies being caught off guard, as honestly being in Packaging now for 8 years, this has been a pretty common question/ask coming from food companies for a little while now. We have always been able to provide letters for this. Maybe some companies just do not keep up with the trends and such and are behind in what is coming down the pipeline.
We work with several packaging vendors as we are a distributor. Basically, every customer is asking for the same thing. Some suppliers are great and have their prepared statement. Other companies, including several very large companies, do not have a smooth system in place to provide this information. It is beyond frustrating!
This a common request we receive lately and a simple PFAS Declaration from packaging material suppliers should suffice.
Working for a packaging company I have been getting this request for months now. I'm actually a little surprised at how late some of our customers are asking for it because it makes it look like they were caught unprepared. The fact that we are getting the request less than 6 weeks before this goes into effect is a little confusing to me.
Like one other commenter said, I've been getting this request for a couple of years, the frequency has just increased significantly over the past couple of months.
Our biggest problem is not our packaging but Foreign Supplier's packaging!
We are a paperboard packaging supplier. We have been receiving requests for PFAS statements since 2017, an issue arising with the phthalate concern, so have had the opportunity to start with this from near the beginning. We created a standard PFAS statement that we have used for some years now. California movements (and now New York) will likely be adopted nationwide as they have been in the past regarding chemical issues so, whether current laws specify the state in which the law originated, your customers will likely follow regardless of their location or sales territories. I have a theory that the whistleblowers on PFAS are from within the plastics industry to try to regain some of the market and increasing expenses stemming from all the "bad stuff" in plastics that might or might not create health issues. (A can of worms likely opened by the paper packaging industry!) but I have been known to be somewhat of a conspiracy theorist :cheezy: . I also think in the next year or so, there will be some backpedaling on harmful vs acceptable PFAS and classifications established. Just one example would be PTFE which is within the PFAS "group". There are several others that are basically inert that likely should not be considered in the grouping of hazardous.