EUROPEAN COMMISSION STUDIES CONFIRM PVC HAZARDS - GREENPEACE CALLS FOR FULL PHASE OUT

12 April 2000

BRUSSELS -- Greenpeace today welcomed the three studies on polyvinylchloride (PVC) published by the European Commission that confirmed serious environmental and economic problems with PVC waste disposal (1). Greenpeace demanded that the EU Commission rapidly initiate effective measures to combat the manifold environmental hazards of PVC. These measures should pave the way for a full phase out of PVC. "The verdict is clear. Landfilling of PVC is a ticking time bomb, incineration creates even more hazardous waste than there was before, and recycling is not a solution," said Axel Singhofen, Greenpeace International EU Toxics Advisor. "PVC is an environmental poison that endangers human health and should be phased out entirely and as fast as possible." The main findings of the studies on PVC are:

- the amount of PVC waste is projected to almost double in the next 20 years from the current 4.1 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes annually (2);

- mechanical recycling will not contribute significantly to the management of PVC post-consumer wastes in the next decades, reaching at best 18% of the total in 2020 (2);

- incineration of 1 kg of PVC leads in most cases to the formation of more than 1kg of hazardous wastes. PVC incineration will furthermore significantly increase the production of leachates and leachable salts from these wastes and creates additional costs of up to 395 Euro per tonnes of PVC incinerated (3);

- landfilling of PVC releases hazardous phthalate softeners. These emissions are expected to last longer than technical barrier of the landfill of 80 years (4);

- landfilling of PVC will contribute to the formation of dioxins and furans in accidental landfill fires (5).

These results confirm key concerns regarding PVC that Greenpeace has published earlier (5). Further hazards of PVC, such as toxic emissions during production and use as well as dioxin formation during incineration, have been beyond the scope of these studies. The studies were contracted by the EU Commission in 1998, following its commitment in July 1997 to address the environmental and health problems of PVC in waste streams (6).

"The three EU-wide studies have sounded the death knell for PVC. The Commission needs to translate these findings into strong and comprehensive restrictive measures immediately," Singhofen added. "It is no longer a matter of whether or not PVC should be phased out, but only of how fast it should happen."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Axel Singhofen, Greenpeace International EU Toxics Advisor, Greenpeace European Unit, Tel: +32 2 280 1987;
- Mats Knapp, Greenpeace International PVC Coordinator, Tel: +46 70 608 7481;
- Teresa Meriläinen, Press Officer, Greenpeace International, Tel: +31 20 5236637.

Follow Greenpeace's Toxics campaign on the web: www.greenpeace.org/~toxics

(1) Studies can be found at: www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/facts_en.htm

(2) Mechanical Recycling of PVC Wastes, Prognos, Plastic Consult and COWI, January 2000. The current recycling rate of post-consumer PVC waste was found to be less than 3% (100,000 tonnes out of a total of 3.6 million tonnes), most of it being low quality recycling. By 2020, PVC post-consumer waste is projected to increase to 6.2 million tonnes. Mechanical recycling is projected to reach 7% (410,000 tonnes) in 2020 in an ecological risk minimization scenario (no recycling of PVC containing lead, cadmium or PCBs) or at most 18% (1.1 million tonnes) of total waste arising in 2020 in a selective improvements scenario which would tolerate toxic additive transfer.

(3) The Influence of PVC on the quantity and hazardousness of flue gas residues from incineration, Bertin Technologies, April 2000.

(4) The Behaviour of PVC in Landfill, ARGUS, February 2000. The report raises many more potential hazards of PVC, such as leaching of lead and cadmium, potentially carcinogenic air emissions, the presence of other hazardous additives in PVC (e.g. bisphenol-A, chlorinated paraffins, nonylphenol, organotins) and the potential for biodegradation of the polymer itself.

(5) "PVC plastic, a looming waste crisis", April 1998.

(6) Preamble of the Proposal for a Council Directive on end of life vehicles, Official Journal C 337/3, 1997.