PVC: The Poison Plastic

“PVC or Polyvinyl Chloride (#3) has many harmful environmental effects. PVC is used in plumbing pipe, shrink wrap, outdoor furniture, some water bottles, and salad dressing bottles. Greenpeace has been working to eliminate the production of PVC, because its manufacturing processes consume approximately 30% of the chlorine used in industrial processes and release many other toxic chemicals, some of which accumulate in the body.

Recycling groups are concerned about PVC, because a small amount can severely contaminate large loads of PET (#1) plastic. PVC strongly resembles PET. If PVC is accidentally incorporated in a load of material being processed for recycling, a release of potentially toxic compounds can occur.

Disposal of PVC also presents problems. PVC is widely used for medical purposes. Medical waste is usually disposed of through incineration. Incineration of PVC can release dioxin, which is a carcinogen….”

Besides running the recycling programme in Berkeley, CA, the Ecology Center website has loads of useful environmental information.

Photo by Groupe Aménagement Numérique des Territoires.

In 2006 in the UK, only 20% of household plastic bottles get recycled and 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year.  Now, I had to research this a bit, because I had heard that “billion” in the UK is different from “billion” in the US.  However, accordingto Wikipedia, since 1974 the UK government abandoned the “long scale” definition of billion, which was a million million, for the “short scale” (“American”) definition of 1,000 million. That means that in the UK 2,600,000,000 bottles are not recycled each year. (Sourse: Recoup, Recycle-more.co.uk)

Worldwide, 60 billion tons of plastic are produced each year, and less than 5% is recycled.  (Source: Project Kaisei)  Where does it all go?  Seemingly everywhere, given how hard it is to get away from plastic litter, which takes forever to break down. Obviously a fair amount goes into landfills. A fair amount gets eaten by animals, too.  

What really made me reconsider my plastic use was hearing about the Plastic Vortex in the Pacific Ocean, which is supposedly twice the size of Texas and, with an estimated 4,000,000 tons of plastic, contains six times more particles of plastic than plankton.

What really amazes me is that a group of people have gotten together to start filtering the ocean. Seriously.  I’m so impressed by someone who can wake up one day and say to her or himself, “I think I’ll tackle the biggest area of litter in the world.”  Project Kaisei: Capturing the Plastic Vortex will be filmed and documented by National Geographic.

Update Sept-09:  Scientists have returned from exploring the “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.” More here. Project Kaisei Flickr Stream is here.

Photo by Von Floto.

A friend recently reminded me that “there is no ‘away’”.  What gets “thrown away” into our bins goes somewhere, and sticks around for a long, long time.  And maybe, just maybe, it drips out, or breaks down into other chemicals, and gradually gets pulled down through cracks in the earth, into places like our water supply…yum.

Not so long ago I was quite pleased by the fact that, on average, our weekly rubbish bag was really quite small – maybe even just a quarter full.  Not bad, I thought.  In Minnesota we typically put out a full (albeit a bit smaller, and less condensed) bag a week – and sometimes two.

But then I was reminded of Donnachadh McCarthy in an article in the Big Issue.  Barry and I visited his house last year during London Open House.  The Big Issue article states that “during the course of 2008 he threw away only half a dustbin full of rubbish.”  I guess I have some work to do!

p.s.  For those of you who don’t know about the Big Issue, it is sold by homeless people who are trained to sell it and make money from selling it.  I like to buy it for a few reasons.  1) It supports a homeless person who is working to get back on his/her feet.   2) It has decent articles.  3) I like to think that by buying it, it makes other people think about buying it, which helps the person I’m buying it from more.  The seller should be wearing an official badge.

Photo by D’Arcy Norman.