26 July, 2000 Brussels A…

    26 July, 2000
    Brussels


                                    A Greenpeace brief on the report

                              Mechanical Recycling of PVC Wastes1

                                 published by the European Commission


           "However, notwithstanding which improvement measures are taken, an
           important conclusion is that mechanical recycling is not qualified to contribute
           significantly to the management of PVC post-consumer wastes in the next
           decades, reaching at most 18% of total PVC waste arising."

Key findings:

      ·   Total PVC waste will increase by 80% over the next 20 years
      ·   Today only 3% of post-consumer PVC waste is recycled, producing mainly low-quality
          recyclates
      ·   Mechanical recycling is not qualified to contribute significantly to the management of PVC
          post-consumer waste in the next decades, reaching at most 18% of total PVC waste in 2020
      ·   In an "ecological risk minimisation scenario" which does not allow the recycling of PVC
          waste containing lead, cadmium or PCBs, "high-quality" PVC recycling rates would reach
          only 5% by 2020
      ·   Low-quality recycling has no environmental advantages
      ·   Much more than other commodity plastics, PVC requires the addition of a variety of different
          additives (2-15% for rigid PVC applications, 25-65% for flexible PVC applications), making
          it difficult to recycle
      ·   PVC disturbs other plastic recycling more than other plastics disturb PVC recycling
      ·   PVC can contribute to the formation of dioxins in thermal waste treatment processes
      ·   Recycling of PVC-containing hazardous substances will disperse these substances into
          products made of recyclates

Waste amounts increase
About 7.1 million tonnes of PVC compound are used to make products in the EU each year. The
amount of compounded PVC entering the waste streams in EU is about 4.1 million tonnes per year.
The reason for this difference is that due to their long life span, a large share of the PVC products will
not enter the waste stream for several years. The projected PVC waste for 2020 is 7.2 million tonnes
per year, that is 80% more than today. How can this flood wave of PVC that is now increasingly
entering our waste streams be managed? Is recycling the answer?

The reality of PVC post-consumer waste recycling
For over a decade the PVC industry has made promises2 about PVC recycling. They have maintained
that PVC is recyclable and that in a couple of years we will have European-wide large scale recycling
1
 Eckhard Plinke (Prognos), Niklaus Wenk (Prognos), Gunther Wolff (Prognos), Diana Castiglione (Plastic
Consult), Mogens Palmark (COWI), January 2000
of PVC. Now, after more than ten years of putting vast resources into trying to establish PVC
recycling schemes, the result is that only 3% of post-consumer PVC waste is recycled, producing
mainly low-quality recyclates (down-cycling).

The future of PVC post-consumer waste recycling
And the future does not look promising. The report concludes that mechanical recycling will reach at
most 18% of the total PVC waste in 2020 (see top quote).

The predicted recycling rate will be significantly lower still when the recycling of PVC wastes
containing heavy metals and PCBs is excluded so as to avoid the transfer of toxic additives into new
products and when a distinction between high-quality and low-quality recycling is made. High-quality
recycling in the ecological risk minimisation scenario is predicted to reach only 5%.

The table below summarises the report's projections on future recycling rates. It is divided into three
scenarios:
    · Trend scenario: This is the result if planned measures are taken to raise the recycling rates.
    · Ecological Risk Minimisation Scenario: In this scenario lead, cadmium and PCBs are not
        allowed to enter the recycling system and extraordinary measures are taken to raise the
        recycling rates.
    · Selective Improvements Scenario: Toxic risks are considered as of limited importance and
        extraordinary measures are taken to raise the recycling rates.

    Scenario         Total waste     Total post-      Post-             Post-            Additional
                     arising         consumer         consumer          consumer         Costs/year
                                     recycling        recycling         recycling        In Euro
                                     rate             rate              rate
                                     (high + low
                                     quality)         high-quality      low-quality
    Today                                 3%               1%                 2%
                     3,600,000 t       (100,000 t)      (35,000) t         (65,000) t
    Trend,                                9%               3%                 6%         90-110
    Year 2020       6,200,000 t        (540,000 t)     (180,000 t)        (360,000) t    million
    Ecological risk
    minimisation,                        7%                 5%              2%           180-190
    Year 2020       6,200,000 t       (410,000 t)        (280,000 t)     (130,000) t     million
    Selective-
    improvements,                        18%                12%             6%           230-290
    Year 2020       6,200,000 t      (1,100,000 t)       (760,000 t)     (340,000 t)     million

Furthermore, the authors see a "tendency towards a deterioration of the conditions for mechanical
PVC recycling for the decades to come after 2020".

Why is it so difficult to recycle PVC?
After reading this report, it is hard to imagine anything more unfit for recycling than PVC.

- PVC disturbing PVC recycling: A PVC product is a compound of the PVC polymer and several
different additives, which not only differ between product groups but also between producers within
the same product group. To obtain the desired properties for a PVC product, it is very important to
strike the right balance for all the different additives. If that balance is not achieved, a PVC material
with a lower quality is produced which cannot be used for that product. This is what happens when

2
 For a description of one of the PVC industry's failed promises, see the Danish Ministry of Energy and
Environment report on the Voluntary Agreement between the PVC industry and the Danish Government in
"PVC Strategy, Status Report and Future Initiatives", June 1999, at www.miljostyrelsen.dk


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different PVC products are recycled together. A material of low quality is produced, as it consists of
an unknown mix of additives. This degrading of quality during recycling is called downcycling.
Downcycling is common in plastics recycling in general because of difficulties in separating fractions,
but the highly diverse composition of PVC products makes this problem worse. That is why mainly
low-quality recyclates are produced from PVC waste. Such low-quality recyclates do not replace
virgin PVC or even other plastics, but instead tend to replace products made of other materials, like
wood or concrete. The authors state that "the environmental benefits of low-quality mechanical
plastics recycling must be regarded as low".

- PVC disturbing other plastic recycling: Furthermore, the chlorine content in PVC creates problems
for the recycling of other plastics. Pure PVC consists of 57% chlorine. To avoid this the chlorine
from PVC is removed before or during the recycling process. The problems are best explained by the
authors themselves: "As a conclusion it can be maintained that the processing of PVC together with
other plastics is generally possible. However, normally this co-processing will lead to a lower quality.
In mixed plastics fractions with low PVC contents PVC disturbs the co-processing, requiring
additional measures where PVC or chlorine is removed from the process. Due to this fact it seems to
be questionable to speak of ,,PVC recycling" for this case. However, the related PVC quantities (e.g.
PVC in packaging) are usually included in the recycling balances for PVC." And this is also the case
in this report. When "recycling" of PVC packaging waste is deducted, the current recycling rate drops
to little more than 2%.

- PVC disturbing other recycling operations: Apart from disturbing other plastic recycling, PVC also
disturbs the treatment and recycling of other wastes too. The authors point out that "PVC can
contribute to the formation of dioxins in thermal waste treatment processes, especially in the presence
of metals. An example is the recycling of metal scraps e.g. from car shredder plants which can result
in dioxin formation if the metal is coated with PVC (e.g. undercoating of cars)."

On top of all this, the recycling of PVC, given that most PVC products contain e.g. toxic heavy metals,
PCBs, chlorinated paraffins, phthalates, etc., will disperse these substances into products made of
recyclates.

Clearly, PVC recycling creates more problems than it solves and can certainly not solve the problems
of the PVC waste mountain yet to come.




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