Negotiations towards a global plastics treaty to end plastic pollution are ongoing (FPF reported and here). Addressing plastic chemicals – in particular chemicals of concern – is key to mitigating plastics’ impacts on humans and the environment. But, to do so, all chemicals that can be present in widely used plastics need to be known. An article published on July 9, 2025, in the journal Nature provides an overview of all chemicals that can be present in plastics and their properties, uses, and hazards.
Co-authored by an international team of independent scientists including from the Food Packaging Forum and led by partners at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the study identifies 16,325 chemicals associated with plastics, which is more than previously know. This includes 5776 additives, 3498 processing aids, 1975 starting substances, and 1788 non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). Importantly, around 4200 of these chemicals are of concern due to their known intrinsic properties which present human or environmental health hazards. What is more, the team of researchers found that chemicals of concern can be present in and migrate from all major plastic types, including food packaging.
Laura Monclús, lead author of the study and from the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in Trondheim says: “There is a lot of momentum to make plastics safer. Our study provides the scientific evidence needed to achieve that goal and better protect human health and the environment from chemicals of concern in plastics.”
Besides mapping the status quo, the authors also provide recommendations on how to arrive at safer and more sustainable plastics. Focusing on the chemical composition, they propose to
- remove chemicals of concern from plastics and highlight 15 priority chemical groups of concern,
- improve transparency by making the chemical composition of plastic products publicly available, and
- re-design plastics to contain fewer chemicals that are well tested (FPF reported).
The scientists systematically and transparently compiled and harmonized the information on plastic chemicals by using seven peer-reviewed or governmental sources, including the Food Packaging Forum’s Food Contact Chemicals database (FCCdb) and the Database on Migrating and Extractable Food Contact Chemicals (FCCmigex). They identified chemicals of concern based on governmental classification or industry information. Chemicals were further linked to plastic types and grouped based on their structure. The researchers previously published the list of plastic chemicals as a non-peer-reviewed resource, the PlastChem database, in March 2024 (FPF reported). Together with the peer-reviewed publication, the project’s website was updated.
Reference
Monclús, L. et al. (2025). “Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics.” Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09184-8
