PVC Debate Continues

PVC Debate Continues

The Vinyl Institute’s letter on PVC (EBN

Vol. 2, No. 5) is without substance or merit. The Institute ignores the economic benefits of product substitution and the significant environmental problems of PVC. In truth, PVC is a cheap, chlorinated product that rarely lives up to its claims of durability and threatens human health and the environment.

The Charles River Associates’ report on cost of substitution for chlorine-based products, from which the Vinyl Institute quotes, fails to take into account the real economic benefits that chlorine-free technologies and products will bring to the marketplace.

Tarkett, the German/Swedish flooring company, recently announced its decision to eliminate PVC flooring from its product line, which represents 70% of the company’s sales. This company, the second largest flooring manufacturer in the world, obviously sees alternative products competing in the marketplace.

Furthermore, the economic impacts of a chlorine phaseout cannot be used as the single reason to continue to manufacture toxic substances. Similar claims were made about asbestos, lead-based products and ozone-depleting CFCs, but ultimately the serious human health and environmental effects overruled economics.

On environmental effects, the Vinyl Institute disregards one of the most critical problems with PVC in construction materials: the effects of accidental fire on surrounding communities. The release of dioxin from such fires has been well documented in Quebec, Belgium, and Germany. Dioxin has been linked to a multitude of cancers, reproductive disorders and multiple endocrine system disruption.

In addition, the production of vinyl chloride, the main ingredient in PVC, is damaging surrounding communities. Formosa Plastics in Point Comfort, Texas is expanding its vinyl chloride plant 10-fold. The State has already declared that it will close oyster harvesting in the bay which will be the discharge outlet for the expansion.

Vinyl chloride (VCM) is released in large quantities from PVC manufacturing facilities annually. For example, according to industry’s own figures, the Swedish Norsk Hydro plant emits 140 tonnes of VCM annually and at the UK ICI Merseyside plant, 1,700 tonnes are emitted each year. Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen.

PVC disposal is yet another environmental nightmare. Incineration of PVC releases a variety of toxins including dioxin; landfills will leach PVC additives. This has led the German Health Ministry and the German Office of the Environment to call for the substitution of PVC in key sectors.

PVC recycling schemes are more myth than reality. Since PVC is not a single material, it is difficult to recycle and highly polluting. In addition, PVC recycling is actually ‘downcycling:’ creating products of low-grade quality for which few markets exist.

Given this incriminating evidence against chlorine pollution, Greenpeace is calling for a phaseout of products and processes that release chlorine by-products in order to safeguard human health and the environment.

Lisa Finaldi, Intern’l Coordinator

Chlorine Free Campaign

Greenpeace

Raleigh, NC