Commission moves cautiously in row over PVC disposal

Date: 22/01/1998

By Chris Johnstone

THE European Commission is treading carefully as it considers how to respond to 'green' groups' calls for a ban on PVC if manufacturers fail to dispose of the material in an environmentally friendly way.

Following the Commission's announcement last year that it would develop a specific policy for polyvinyl chloride, officials from the Directorate-General for the environment (DGXI) are drawing up a report outlining options for the future.

The move comes amid deep divisions between environmental groups and the PVC industry over whether the material - which is widely used in the construction, packaging and auto industries - can be recycled or treated at all. They disagree on whether it can be incinerated without producing dangerous toxins, and differ over the degree to which it can be reused by the industry. On only one issue do the two sides appear to agree: that burying PVC waste is not a solution.

Greenpeace Europe has called on the Commission to force the industry to meet firm targets for recycling and to ban the use of PVC where this is not possible.

"The concept of producer responsibility should be firmly applied in this case. At the moment, the industry takes no responsibility for what happens to the product when it is no longer in service. That bill is passed on to taxpayers," said Axel Singhofen, EU toxics adviser for Greenpeace Europe.

Greenpeace claims that recycling is far from an easy solution, partly because there are many hundreds of different types of PVC on the market.

It also maintains that burning PVC is not the answer because the total amount of waste is actually increased by the process and, without the most sophisticated filtering devices, there is an added danger of dioxins being released into the atmosphere.

But PVC manufacturers deny that there are any particular problems with incineration or recycling. "The only reason we currently see low levels of recycling is that PVC is a relatively new product and it often has a life span of between 40 and 50 years," said Paul Jackson, external affairs manager of the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers, who added that recycling currently amounted to between 3% and 6% of production.

As the Commission considers the best way forward, it has asked national governments for their views and has held two information sessions with environmental groups and European producers. But it remains unclear whether a proposal will emerge in the next few months.

Green groups have expressed concern that the Directorate-General for industry (DGIII), headed by Commissioner Martin Bangemann, is closely involved in shaping the institution's approach to what insiders admit is "a highly sensitive subject".

European production of PVC totalled 5.2 million tonnes in 1996, with Dutch-registered EVC, Belgium's Solvay and Germany's Vinnolit amongst the biggest manufacturers.