Worldwide Attention to PVC
From the Africa Science News a call to recycle and reduce PVC usage.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used plumbing pipes and guttering, shower curtains, window frames and flooring. Polypropylene (PP) is used in food containers, appliances and car fenders (bumpers).There has been growing concern on not only the environmental degradation effects through the use of all these kinds of plastics but also their negative health effect to consumers particularly when used in food packaging. Many organizations are raising an alarm on the same issue.
For instance, PVC contains numerous toxic chemicals called adipates (plasticizers) which make it more flexible thus enabling it to be used for packaging food a and liquids, in plumbing and building materials and even in cosmetics.
It has been found that these chemicals leach out when the PVC comes into contact with food. The World Health Organization (WHO)’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has recognized the chemicals used to make PVC, vinyl chloride, as a known human carcinogen.
Also some compounds that leach out from Styrofoam food containers interfere with the body hormonal functions. It is a possible human carcinogen.
Plastics are also a major menace to the environment since they are durable and thus degrade slowly.
The manufacture of plastics not only creates large quantities of chemical pollutants but also their burning releases toxic fumes to the atmosphere.
Therefore it should be everybody’s concern to ensure safe disposal of plastics whenever they are used. The environment is our life and we depend on it for livelihood and sustainability.
Thus by safe disposal, we enhance reduced sewerage system blockage, reduced livestock deaths, reduced mosquito breeding grounds and improved aesthetics.
Therefore this calls for manufacturers to establish collection systems of higher gauge plastics, which are easier to collect and recycle and also investment in the production of alternative packaging.
Recycling has proven difficult since it is difficult to automate the sorting of plastic waste and so it is labour intensive.
Also some products may have many small parts consisting of different types and colours of plastics, such that it takes far more resources exceeding their value and thus the item is discarded.
Recycling of some types of plastics can be unprofitable as well.Therefore the long lasting solution in this issue is to use alternative packaging such as cotton or sisal bags for shopping.
