A recurring theme was the cost and limited effectiveness of end-of-pipe remediation. Ali Ling of the University of St Thomas presented research on PFAS remediation costs across Europe, concluding that removing PFAS from soil and water is so expensive, relative to its impact on overall contamination, that wastewater treatment plants would be better served focusing on other hazardous substances covered by the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, while reserving PFAS remediation for drinking water and contamination hotspots where it has the clearest public health benefit. Speakers broadly agreed that stopping further PFAS pollution at source, through regulation and market transition, matters more than remediation after the fact.

The conference also highlighted market-side pressure building independently of regulation. Swedbank Robur described how it communicates chemical dependency as a financial risk to portfolio companies, given upcoming legislation's likely impact on company valuations, while COOP Denmark presented its transition toward non-toxic food packaging, including pushing suppliers to develop PFAS-free microwave popcorn packaging, illustrating how retailer-driven substitution pressure can move faster than the regulatory timeline itself in specific product categories. In a panel on water sector resilience, participants including a European Commission DG ENV representative agreed that readiness to handle toxic chemicals varies significantly even between EU Member States, an unevenness that complicates uniform enforcement of any eventual PFAS restriction.

Journalists Stéphane Horel and Raphaëlle Aubert also presented their "Forever Pollution Project," the investigative mapping of known PFAS contamination sites across Europe first published in 2023, describing what they characterised as disinformation campaigns by chemical and plastics industry interests aimed at discrediting the project and opposing the PFAS restriction now under preparation, a characterisation offered by the journalists themselves rather than an assessment adopted by the conference organisers or EU institutions present.

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