PFAS on Your Hands? EPA Weighs in With Updated Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of PFAS Substances

On April 23, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its 2026 Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of PFAS (Interim Guidance), updating guidance most recently issued in 2024, after committing in April 2025 to update the guidance annually. EPA will accept public comment on the Interim Guidance through June 29, 2026.

The Interim Guidance, which is expressly non-binding, encourages managers of PFAS and PFAS-containing materials to use destruction and disposal options that have a lower potential for releasing PFAS substances to the environment, taking site-specific conditions into consideration. The 2024 version of the Interim Guidance identified three commercially available destruction and disposal technologies — thermal treatment, underground injection, and landfill disposal — that EPA concluded, based on publicly available peer-reviewed data, minimize environmental release of PFAS. The 2026 update retains those same three technologies but refreshes the analysis with newly available data.

Thermal treatment. As in the 2024 Interim Guidance, the 2026 update recognizes thermal treatment, including incineration, as a viable PFAS destruction technology when certain conditions are met (including temperatures generally above 1,100°C and carefully controlled combustion conditions). The 2026 update adds new data on the effectiveness of incineration, drawing on recent testing at commercial hazardous waste incinerators in Utah and Texas. Both facilities demonstrated high destruction rates for target PFAS compounds and low byproduct formation, although EPA notes that the results are facility-specific and that site-specific testing remains necessary to confirm that any given facility can achieve similar results.

Underground injection. Like the 2024 version of the Interim Guidance, the 2026 update identifies permitted Class I non-hazardous industrial and hazardous waste injection wells as a viable disposal option for fluids containing PFAS. EPA also notes several practical limitations (e.g., that the number of permitted wells currently accepting off-site PFAS waste is limited and transportation logistics may further constrain availability) and continued uncertainties about the long-term fate of PFAS in the injection zone. The 2026 update refreshes the data regarding the locations of existing Class I injection wells, but the discussion of underground injection is otherwise largely unchanged from the 2024 version.

Disposal at landfills permitted to receive hazardous waste. The 2026 update reaffirms that permitted RCRA Subtitle C hazardous waste landfills are a viable disposal option, citing their stringent engineering controls and containment practices. Notably, the 2026 update discusses new studies, including research on gaseous emissions from landfills. EPA emphasizes that additional research is needed to better understand the impact of gaseous emissions from landfills and the effectiveness of landfill leachate treatment.

While EPA has focused on widely available technologies in the Interim Guidance, it expressly states that the guidance “does not preclude the use of other new or emerging technologies” and encourages technology developers to generate and release data that can be used to evaluate such technologies. The Interim Guidance also includes a “framework” to help managers of PFAS and PFAS-containing materials evaluate these emerging technologies. Given EPA’s commitment to annual updates, a revised Interim Guidance in 2027 may reflect additional data on emerging technologies — making it worth monitoring developments in this space closely.

Our team will continue to report on updates to the Interim Guidance and other developments in this area. Please feel free to reach out to any of us or your Arnold & Porter contacts for further information.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2026 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.