Plastic number 3

Time to turn to plastic number three, polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.  PVC is the third most widely used plastic, and it gets a lot of bad press. It's not hard to see why, as despite it's really useful properties - it's cheap, very tough, and weathers well - PVC also has a nasty side to it.  

Most of the PVC manufactured worldwide goes into construction, and you as a consumer get very little choice in the matter. No matter how green you are, your water will be piped to you and your waste removed in PVC plumbing, and the electrical cables in your home are coated with it. There's no avoiding PVC at home. Maybe, like me, you've got quite a vinyl record collection too.

Of more concern are the applications where PVC replaces rubber. To make it soft and flexible, plasticizers such as phthalates are added. The resulting PVC is cheaper than leather, rubber or latex. You'll be familiar with PVC in waterproof coats, skiing equipment, shoes, plastic raincoats, shower curtains, shoe soles, pool liners, inflatable toys - all with that soft, slightly greasy feel. That's the effect of the plasticizers, and PVCs have a lot them of added -  most of the plasticizer market worldwide is used in PVCs.  Phthalates have been demonstrated to be endocrine disruptors, with some nasty potential health impacts.

PVC starts to degrade at just 70°C, releasing hydrogen chloride gas, so heat stabilsers are also often added. Traditionally derivatives of lead and cadmium were used, but nowadays much less harmful metallic soaps (such as calcium stearate) are used. Dioxins have been shown to form when PVC is burnt such as in landfill fires or hospital incinerators. Other health concerns are associated with the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) that PVC is made from, which is a carcinogen. The risk in this case is to the workers during its manufacture.

It has been difficult to prove that plasticizers readily leach into the environment. They are tightly bound into the PVC, but we are all familiar with the that 'new plastic' smell from PVC products.  Many of us remember the greasy film that used to coat the inside of our car windows - that was the phthalates from the vinyl seats.  There's sufficient hard evidence for Toyota, Nissan and Honda to have eliminated PVC from their car interiors five years ago.

There have been calls for care around PVC for many decades.  As I said earlier, a lot of the PVC used in your home would prove impossible to replace with other materials.  However, you can check that you aren't wearing clothing made from PVC, that it hasn't been used in your children's toys, that you use a non-PVC shower curtain and that you avoid vinyl flooring.

Additionally, PVC products that have finished their useful life aren't collected for recycling by our council collection. PVC doesn't look good at any of the stages of it's life cycle! Needless to say - there's nothing made of PVC stocked at ZURI! The safest bet with this plastic is probably to avoid it as much as possible.