Manufacturers hit out over PVC studies

Date: 18/05/2000

By Renée Cordes

EUROPE'S PVC manufacturers claim that four studies carried out for the Commission on waste management and recycling are seriously flawed, and paint a false picture of the plastic's effect on the environment.

However, the industry's efforts to dissuade the Commission from imposing strict EU-wide environmental standards on the sector by offering voluntary recycling commitments have so far fallen on deaf ears as officials map out an overall PVC strategy.

The reports, along with a fifth to be published later, will be used as a basis for a Commission policy paper on the future of PVC due out before the summer.

The studies predict that PVC waste in the EU will increase by a massive 80% over the next two decades unless action is taken soon to combat the problem. They also forecast that although PVC waste recycling will triple over the next ten years, it will then tail off to 9% by 2020.

But the European Council for Vinyl Manufacturers and other industry groups claim the studies' conclusions are largely based on incomplete or irrelevant information. They argue, for example, that researchers failed to distinguish between municipal and construction waste, and thus overestimated the quantity of heavy metals in landfill sites at 28%, compared with the 3% cited by the sector. They also insist researchers did not have enough time to examine PVC's long-term impact on landfill sites, thereby distorting the results.

In recent talks with the Commission, industry officials suggested setting a voluntary 50% recycling target for old PVC pipes and window frames collected by firms to be achieved by 2005. Commission officials stress they have not yet had a chance to assess what industry is suggesting formally, but add that they are reluctant to rush into making the sector any promises before the EU executive comes forward with its own PVC strategy.

Europe's PVC manufacturers claim that four studies carried out for the Commission on waste management and recycling are seriously flawed, and paint a false picture of the plastic's effect on the environment.