PVC is one of the least recycled plastics, with less than 0.25% of waste being recovered. It contains additives and chlorine that make recycling difficult and can leak toxic chemicals when buried or burned. Mechanical recycling grinds PVC into powder for new products but cannot remove toxins. Chemical recycling breaks PVC down at a molecular level to remove chlorine and additives, creating a healthier material and recovering byproducts, but is more expensive. Most recycling currently uses industrial scrap through mechanical recycling but programs now collect some postconsumer PVC. Chemical recycling remains a solution for highly contaminated PVC.
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PVC is one of the least recycled plastics, with less than 0.25% of waste being recovered. It contains additives and chlorine that make recycling difficult and can leak toxic chemicals when buried or burned. Mechanical recycling grinds PVC into powder for new products but cannot remove toxins. Chemical recycling breaks PVC down at a molecular level to remove chlorine and additives, creating a healthier material and recovering byproducts, but is more expensive. Most recycling currently uses industrial scrap through mechanical recycling but programs now collect some postconsumer PVC. Chemical recycling remains a solution for highly contaminated PVC.
PVC is one of the least recycled plastics, with less than 0.25% of waste being recovered. It contains additives and chlorine that make recycling difficult and can leak toxic chemicals when buried or burned. Mechanical recycling grinds PVC into powder for new products but cannot remove toxins. Chemical recycling breaks PVC down at a molecular level to remove chlorine and additives, creating a healthier material and recovering byproducts, but is more expensive. Most recycling currently uses industrial scrap through mechanical recycling but programs now collect some postconsumer PVC. Chemical recycling remains a solution for highly contaminated PVC.
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PVC is one of the least recycled plastics, with less than 0.25% of waste being recovered. It contains additives and chlorine that make recycling difficult and can leak toxic chemicals when buried or burned. Mechanical recycling grinds PVC into powder for new products but cannot remove toxins. Chemical recycling breaks PVC down at a molecular level to remove chlorine and additives, creating a healthier material and recovering byproducts, but is more expensive. Most recycling currently uses industrial scrap through mechanical recycling but programs now collect some postconsumer PVC. Chemical recycling remains a solution for highly contaminated PVC.
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PVC-recycling technologies
The plastic known as vinyl, polyvinyl chloride or PVC is the least postconsumer recycled plastic, per usage amount, in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency calculates that 910,000 tons of PVC waste are generated annually but less than a quarter of 1 percent is recovered for recycling. PVC is chemically manipulated during production to achieve uses from household fabrics to construction piping. The additives used in these manipulations and PVC's inherent chlorine content complicate recycling processes for this plastic.
Environmental Concerns Chemical additives and heavy metal content have deemed PVC to be a particularly polluting form of plastic, both when incinerated and when buried in landfills. The material has been found to leak chlorine, carcinogens and other toxic chemicals into the soil and air over time within landfill or incineration disposals. These pollutants have led many governments to focus policies on the reduction of PVC production and usage, as well as to research healthier alternatives to PVC's harmful additives and healthy recycling methods for PVC.
Mechanical Recycling Although postconsumer PVC recycling rates are low, PVC can be turned into new source material. The most common method for this today is mechanical recycling -- a process that grinds the material into a powder base for new plastic products. The benefit of mechanically recycling PVC is that new products can achieve equal quality to originals, while many other types of plastics may only be down cycled into lower-quality products. The downside is that this process cannot remove any toxins from PVC. At best, mechanical recycling can lower the need for new PVC production and dilute PVC toxicity through the addition of new material.
Postindustrial Recycling Most PVC with recycled content has been mechanically recycled from industrial scrap material. Industries can collect PVC from a single source, increasing recycling efficiency. The variety of additives in mixed PVC sourcing can hinder processing due to potential contamination, which can result in unsafe working environments and unusable products. Because industries can bypass the intensive sorting required of mixed batches, many have begun to run product-specific collection or buy-back programs. These programs allow manufacturers to recycle increasing amounts of postconsumer PVC along with postindustrial material.
Chemical Recycling The more advanced recycling alternative to mechanical processing is chemical recycling. This method is particularly beneficial for PVC because it breaks down plastics at a molecular level. At the molecular level, the chlorine and other chemical additives can be removed from the material, creating a healthier product. These systems can also harvest the chemical byproducts of PVC for reuse, thereby reducing the production of hazardous elements such as chlorine. The specialized facilities and costliness required for chemical recycling prevent widespread usage of the method, but it remains a solution for the most contaminated PVC compounds, which could not otherwise be recycled
Alexandria University Faculty Of Engineering Chemical Engineering Department
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