PVC Plastic: a Looming Waste Crisis

The Plastics Boom - and the Looming PVC Waste Crisis

World consumption of plastics has boomed since the late forties, with a very high growth rate. Currently, global consumption of plastics stands at over 100 million tonnes a year. Half ends up as waste within two years of production, as it is used to make products with a short life span (Smits 1996). Yet, most of the other half is just starting to enter the waste stream.

In the future, plastic waste will increase faster than the growth in consumption. In Europe and the USA, about 15% of plastic waste is incinerated; almost all the rest is landfilled, and only a tiny fraction is recycled. About half of the plastic manufactured is used in long-life products, such as window frames and pipes, which have - according to the industry - a mean lifetime of approximately 34 years. Longer life plastic goods produced 30-40 years ago are now entering the waste stream and the amount of plastic waste is expected to increase rapidly in the coming decades.

The Association of Plastic Manufacturers in Europe has predicted the volume of plastic wastes which will enter European society within the next few years; it is escalating. "The consumption rate [of building plastics] has grown faster than the rate of waste arising, but indications from APME research show that in the future plastics waste will increase faster in relative proportion than the growth in overall consumption.

From 0.93 million tonnes per year in 1992, plastic construction waste will increase to approximately 1.5 million tonnes by the year 2000, and 2.4 million tonnes per year in 2010." (APME 1996a).

PVC is the most commonly used plastic in long-life construction material and makes up the bulk of this new waste stream. The total amount of PVC consumed globally since the early 1960’s can be estimated at over 300 million tonnes, of which about half has already been disposed of in landfills and incinerators. The other half is still in use in long-life products such as construction materials; if PVC production continues at its current rate the total amount of PVC used in long-life construction products will double to 300 million tonnes by the year 2005.

The PVC industry is expanding rapidly in Asia and Latin America... and so too will PVC waste. Alarmingly, world consumption of PVC is set to increase. With its growth rates, Asia will be by far the biggest consumer of PVC in the next century, with main markets in Taiwan, China, Korea and India. PVC consumption in Latin America is also set to expand, with Brazil an important market. In 1990 a total of almost 18 million tonnes was consumed. In 1997 this increased to 22 million tonnes, with further increases to come. Asia has a particularly high expected growth rate in PVC consumption, while in the USA and Europe growth rates are declining (SRI International 1993).

So how large is the PVC waste mountain? Given that the average lifetime of construction plastics, according to the industry, is about 34 years then the rapid increase in the use of long-life plastic products in construction since the 1960’s means there will be a rapid rise in waste from the 1990’s onwards. Even if all PVC production was phased out today, there would still be a PVC plastic waste mountain of over 150 million tonnes of long-life PVC products, mainly construction materials, about to enter society as waste in the next three to four decades.

Along with the waste comes tens of millions of tonnes of additives. Moreover, this estimate does not include the waste arising from short-life applications such as packaging and household use, which will add up to an extra 150 million tonnes in the next ten years.