The Poison Plastic

Hi everyone!

 

Welcome to my second blog post on Vinyl!! In this post I will be talking about all things PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride). You may not know this but the term ‘Vinyl’ in ‘Vinyl Record’ is actually an abbreviated form of Polyvinyl Chloride, which is the type of plastic that a vinyl record is made of.

 

Initially, most records were made from a more brittle material called ‘shellac’. These shellac records were produced from around 1898 to the 1950s when World War 2 caused its supply to deplete. It was from then that records started to get pressed on PVC instead. These PVC records were seen as a more durable alternative to the shellac records that were highly prone to damage from water and alcohol. However, when the switch was made, they were most likely unaware of the major environmental consequences that PVC brought with it due to the lack of technology and research done on PVC at the time.

 

While PVC does have its advantages in terms of durability, ease of mold, cost, low melting temperature and low flammability, the negative environmental impacts from the production, use and disposal of PVC vastly outweigh these advantages.

 

Hazardous by-products of the PVC lifecycle

 

Throughout the PVC lifecycle, there are large amounts of hazardous by-products formed such as Dioxins, Phthalates and heavy metal stabilizers that are released into the environment. These by-products are highly persistent meaning that they build up in the environment over time and resist the natural degradation process. These by-products are highly toxic and according to a study by Joe Thornton, Ph.D., “Many of the by-products of the PVC lifecycle are now ubiquitous global pollutants, which can be found not only in industrialized regions but in the planet’s most remote ecosystems”

 

Dioxins

 

• Formed accidentally whenever chlorine gas/chlorine-based chemicals are burned or processed under reactive conditions

 

• Vinyl is known as the predominant chlorine donor, and is associated with more dioxin formation than any other single product

 

• Dioxins are global pollutants and have been found in animals all over the world including virtually every human being on earth.

 

• Any exposure to Dioxin is considered to be unsafe as it causes major health risks to all those exposed to it. According to the study, “The dioxin exposure of the average American already poses a calculated cancer risk of one in 1000 to a one in 100 – thousands of times greater than the usual standard for an ‘acceptable risk’”.

 

Phthalates

 

• Vinyl accounts for “90% of total phthalate consumption” where “over 5 million tons of phthalates are used in vinyl every year

 

• Similar to Dioxins, Phthalates are considered global pollutants and can be found all over the world in the air, water as well as in the fluids of humans due to them leaching out of vinyl products as they are not chemically bonded to the plastic.

 

• These Phthalates are released into the environment during the formation and molding of vinyl products such as vinyl records as well as during the incineration process of these vinyl products at the end of its lifecycle when they are dumped into landfills

 

Here is a video which explains a bit more about PVC and its negative impact on the environment:

 

 

End of its lifecycle

 

Most PVC products, vinyl records included, end up incinerated in landfills due to them being extremely difficult to recycle. This is because PVC is made of a unique mix of additives. “Even in Europe, where PVC recycling is more advanced than in the United States, less than 3% of post-consumer PVC is recycled”

 

As you can see polyvinyl chloride is a major contributor of pollution to our environment. According to an article by the BBC, “Modern records typically contain around 135g of PVC material with a carbon footprint of 0.5kg of carbon dioxide. Sales of 4.1m records would produce 1.9 thousand tonnes of CO₂ – not taking transport and packaging into account. That is the entire carbon footprint of almost 400 people per year”.

 

I hope this blog post gave you some insight into the highly pollutive aspect of Polyvinyl Chloride and why it is one of the most pollutive plastics in the world. In my next blog post I will be talking about the bright side of vinyl and how the vinyl industry is trying to reduce their negative impact on the environment.

 

References: 

 

The history of 78 RPM recordings. (n.d.). Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/music/historyof78rpms

 

Wilson, J. (2019, March 14). Dark side of the vinyl: Are records bad for the environment? Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/03/dark-side-of-the-vinyl-are-records-bad-for-the-environment/

 

CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita). (n.d.). Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC

 

How streaming music could be harming the planet. (n.d.). Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190207-why-streaming-music-may-be-bad-for-climate-change

 

Thorton, J., Ph.D. (2002). Environmental Impacts of Polyvinyl Chloride Building Materials. A Healthy Building Network Report. Retrieved September 9, 2020, from https://s3.amazonaws.com/hbnweb.dev/uploads/files/environmental-impacts-of-polyvinyl-chloride-building-materials.pdf