MEPs back recycling of hard PVC but soften stance overall

However, while recognising that time will be needed to plan for PVC waste, MEPs insist that the PVC industry can make an early contribution by
phasing out harmful additives.

Earlier this month MEPs responded to last year's Commission Green Paper on PVC and the environment, and a vote indicated an emerging consensus between Strasbourg (the home of the Parliament) and Brussels (the home of the Commission).

The Parliament wants early legislation to ban harmful additives – an issue the Commission promised to cover in the near future, with a follow-up White Paper
setting out the Commission's intended strategy on PVC.

Commissioner Erkki Liikanen confirmed that Brussels would “concentrate on
additives in PVC, namely lead, cadmium and phthalates” as well as addressing
the issue of PVC waste.

The Parliament's spokesman on PVC, Italian MEP Guido Sacconi expects the EU
to follow the approach taken in the &#39E;nd-of-Life' Vehicles Directive –
“producer liability for the whole life-cycle of the product, from the time of its
design to its eventual disposal, with the idea of pushing producers into designing safer
materials, in particular materials that lend themselves to safer disposal”.

But that may entail voluntary agreements with industry – an approach which
Strasbourg has resisted in the past. A resolution adopted by the Parliament insisted that targets cannot be “left to the goodwill of industry,” but MEPs signalled that they might go along with legislation which would be activated only if industry fails to meet agreed waste reduction objectives.

Commission and Parliament appear to agree that, short term, curbing heavy
discharges of hydrogen chloride (HCl) from annual incineration of 600,000
tonnes of PVC across the Union will entail removing PVC from that particular
waste stream.

Residues

Current incineration technologies involve neutralising agents such as lime,
to ensure that emissions comply with EU standards. But this produces hazardous residues in volumes greater than that of the original PVC. Pending wider introduction of new incinerators capable of partial recovery of HCl, landfill represents the lesser of two evils for 'hard' PVCs, according to a report adopted in the European Parliament on April 3. There remains a risk that huge quantities of dioxins can be released by accidental fires at landfill sites.

MEPs see scope for recovery/recycling of 'hard' PVCs used in the construction
sector – window frames, pipework and roofing membranes – in view of the large
volumes involved and relative ease of collection.

However, incineration is seen as a safer option for PVCs 'softened' by
phthalate additives. Flexible PVCs contain less chlorine. Moreover, incineration avoids
the risk of phthalates leaching from landfill sites into the environment, where
they have the effect of mimicking hormones in wildlife and humans.

Longer-term strategies will require EU rules on the marking of PVC products,
to allow differentiated waste disposal but for the moment, eliminating harmful additives is seen as a priority.