Document OEy3Yy6k1qMvoJgzpBdbw18rv

o l/l JThe Vinyl Institute Wayne Interchange Plaza II 155 Route 46 West Wayne, NJ 07470 (201) 890-9299 The Vinyl Institute is a division ofthe Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. representing the leading manufacturers ofPVC as well as PVC raw materials, additives and modifiers. Members include: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Borden Chemicals and Plastics CertainTeed Corporation The Dow Chemical Company Georgia Gulf Corporation The BFGoodrich Company Occidental Chemical Corporation PPG Industries, Inc. Vista Chemical Company Associate Members: European Vinyls Corporation Vinyl Council of Canada Affiliate Members: Borg Warner Chemicals, Inc. Kaneka Texas Corporation Lucidol Division, Pennwalt Corporation M&T Chemicals Inc. Rohm and Haas Company Witco Corporation 1988, The Vinyl Institute o VHirurSRECYCUIlL V 1. hi* 1 '2 r ^^^pS^iiiiiiiiiii CTL016573 n\c References 1. Packaging Today, Solid Waste Tomorrow: Where Does It Co? William L. Bider, Franklin .Associates. Ltd., presented at the 4th International Conference on Packaging. Lansing. Michigan. September 1985. 2. Basic Data: Solid Waste Amounts, Composition and Management Systems, NSWMA Technical Bulletin, #85-6, October 1985. 3. Mew York: Where Will All the Garbage Go? J. Tevere MacFadyne, The Atlantic, March 1985. 4. A Burning Question - Air Emissions from Municipal Refuse Incinerators, Joanna Kidd, the Pollution Probe Foundation, Toronto, 1984. 5. Resource Recovery: An Examination of Current Technologies, Environmental Factors and State Air Emission Standards, P.A. Buckley, Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee (Pennsylvania), October 1986. 6. Characterization ofMunicipal Solid Waste in the United States, 1960 to 2000, Final Report, Franklin Associates, Ltd., July 1986. 7. Industry data, Aluminum Association. 8. Industry data, The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. 9. The Economic Feasibility of Recycling Plastic Uds/csv Preliminary .Assessment, T. Randall Curlee. Oak Ridge National Laboratory. April 1984. 10. Waste-to-Energy Systems, American Ref-Fuel. 1984. 11. Results of the Combustion imd Emissions Research Project at the Yicon Incinerator Facility in Pittsfield. Massachusetts, prepared by Midwest Research Institute for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Final Report, June 1987. 12. The Chlorine Content ofMunicipal Solid Waste from Baltimore County Maryland and Brooklyn, Mew York, K.L. Churney, A.E. Ledford. S.S. Bruce and E.S. Domalski. National Bureau of Standards. Gaithersburg. Maryland, (NBSIR 85-3213). April 1985. 13. Modern Plastics, January 1988. 14. Municipal Waste Combustion Study. A Report to Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA/530-S\V-87-021a. June 1981. 15. The Rational Incinerator Testing and Evaluation Program: Air Pollution Control Technology Environment Canada, Report EPS 3/UP/2, September 1986. 16. Does PCV Waste Incineration Contribute to Acid Rain? Philip Lightowlers and J. Neil Cape, Chemistry and Industry, June 1987. 17. A System to Mold Mixed, Contaminated Plastics into Wood, Metal and Concrete Replacements, John Maczko, MidAtlantic Plastics Systems, Inc., a SPE Regional Technical Conference paper. March 1988. CTL01657 4 The Vinyl Institute Position Plastics are fast becoming the pre ferred packaging material because of the superior performance properties they provide. However, banning their use in disposable products will not substantially alter the mag nitude of the solid waste problem. Ultimately, the solid waste di lemma will be solved through a combination of management techniques that em ploys recycling and incineration of most MSW components and mini mizes landfilling. To that end, the Vinyl Institute supports research in a number of areas of solid waste management. The plastic two-liter soda bottle and gallon milk jug have proven that traditional recycling programs can be effectively used to handle plastic packaging products of dis tinctive shapes and primarily onematerial composition. Similar pro grams have been established in Europe to reprocess table water bottles, which are typically com posed of PVC. There are no tech nological barriers to including vinyl products in such types of programs and newer efforts in the United States are being encouraged by the vinyl industry. A promising technology for reproc essing plastic packaging lies in the area of recycling commingled, or mixed, plastics. This new tech nology eliminates the need for consumers or waste handlers to separate different types of plastic packaging prior to processing and also facilitates the recycling of plas tic packaging made of several different materials (composite packaging). Currently, the Vinyl Institute is one of several organ izations underwriting research in this area. While technological barriers to recycling continue to be overcome, the development of markets for recycled materials must become a priority if recycling is to play a sig nificant role in solid waste man agement. In the interim, and for MSW components that cannot be recycled or recycled further, incin eration provides a practical, envi ronmentally sound alternative. As a division of the Society of the Plastics Industry, the Institute par ticipates in a number of industry wide programs established to address the issue of plastics in solid wastes, including the issue of marine pollution. And, through its own committee structure, the Vinyl Institute maintains an on going technical program devoted to PVC and solid waste manage ment, focusing the expertise of recognized industry leaders on the role that plastics, and particularly PVC, play in this issue. The Vinyl Institute recognizes solid waste management as one of the most critical issues facing this country today Practical ap proaches exist, however, that can be adapted without unnecessarily restricting the use of materials which provide numerous con sumer benefits. By working with the scientific community legis lators, regulators and other government officials throughout the country the Vinyl Institute is helping to develop solutions to the solid waste dilemma that serve industry the public interest and the environment. CTL016575 PVC in the Solid Waste Stream - The Facts PVC (polyvinyl chloride, or vinyl) is one of the world's most widely used and versatile plastics. In packaging, it is used in food wrap, rigid blister pack and in bottles for drugs, sun dries, edible oils and other food products. Nevertheless, vinyl con stitutes only 5% of all plastics used in packaging11 and plastic packag ing, in turn, represents only about 3-5% of all materials found in the solid waste stream.4 Despite its minor role in the waste stream, some concerns about PVC have been raised. Here are the facts: About PVC and Recycling: Like other plastics, PVC can be recycled. In fact, because of the diversity of uses for vinyl outside of the packaging industry, it rep resents an excellent candidate for recycling into second generation products. One of the first such ex amples occurred in Europe, where vinyl containers used for bottled water were collected and reproc essed into electrical wire sheath ing. In the United States, scrap PVC currently is being used to manufacture drain pipe as well as wood-substitute products. In addi tion, new research indicates that PVC also can be successfully in cluded in commingled plastics recycling.1' This emerging tech nology is widely regarded as one of the most promising waste man agement alternatives because it will eliminate the need to sort and separate different plastic materials. About PVC and Dioxins: Dioxins are a family of chlorinated organics and are formed from virtu ally all combustion processes. Tests conducted on behalf of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) comparing waste with typical levels of PVC, waste with extra amounts of PVC and waste containing no PVC have revealed that even when MSW has no vinyl in it, dioxins are formed during incineration be cause dioxin levels are dependent on incinerator operating conditions and not on the makeup of the waste. By carefully controlling combustion temperatures, dioxin formation can be limited to ex tremely low levels.11 Dioxins form even when all vinyl products are removed because 50-70% of the chlorine present in MSW comes from sources other than chlorinecontaining plastics.1"' These in clude such items as paper, table salt, vegetable matter and wood. About PVC and Acid Rain: Hydrogen chloride generated by the incineration of PVC has not been shown to be a measurable con tributor to acid rain formation.11' Uncontrolled emissions from power plants burning fossil fuels are the principal contributors to acid rain, specifically producing sulfur di oxide and nitrogen oxide. Further more, a modem incinerator equipped with a scrubber will eliminate over 90% of the hydrogen chloride gas generated from combustion.1' About PVC and Groundwater: PVC products found in landfills are chemically stable materials that do not decompose when subjected to the forces that cause paper, metal or certain organic materials to de grade. For this reason, PVC does not leach harmful chemicals into groundwater. In fact, it is PVCs outstanding resistance to corrosive soil and water conditions that has made it a preferred material for water distribution piping for many years. Because of its stability and resistance to attack, PVC also is used to make liners for landfill sites. CTL01657 6 Incineration: Expanding Options for MSW Management While many plastic products represent outstanding recycling candidates, much of the waste stream does not. either because it is unsortable or because recycle uses do not exist. For this portion of the waste stream, incineration represents an efficient, costeffective alternative to landfilling. In fact, many plastics contribute the most to resource conservation when they are burned for their energy content. A pound of mixed plastics, for instance, will produce 12,000 BTU's when properly incin erated - roughly the equivalent of a pound of coal.9 Plastics, however, are not the only products that can be burned to produce energy. Al most anything that bums produces BTU's, even grass clippings. More over, even the most successful recy cling program eventually produces items that cannot be reprocessed again. If these items are burnable, they too become candidates for incineration and energy recovery. In a sense, incineration is really a form of recycling, with energy instead of material being the re cycled product. Thus, incineration presents a practical way to handle all combustible MSW components, not just plastics. Recently, it has been suggested that the incineration of plastics results in the generation of haz ardous air emissions. New research has revealed that it is incinerator operating conditions - primarily temperature - and not the con tents of the trash being burned, that affect the generation of such toxic materials as dioxins and furans in combustion gases." Improvements in scrubber tech nology have further reduced the potential environmental risks that have, in the past, been asso ciated with this form of waste management. As land, transportation and oper ating costs increase, incineration becomes even more economically attractive. While the expense of landfilling likely will continue to rise, the investment in incineration facilities can stabilize or even de crease MSW management costs for those items in the waste stream that remain after recycling.10 Modern incinerators operate cleanly and efficiently, producing about 9 million BTU's for every ton of MSW produced' the equivalent of V- cord of wood or almost 2 barrels of crude oil. CTL016577 Recycling: Some Considerations for Success Of the many different types of plas tic packaging used today, two materials constitute the majority of products in the waste stream: poly ethylene terephthalate (PET) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). Already, a large amount of these materials is being recycled, pri marily through the collection of PET soda bottles and HDPE milk jugs. In fact, currently 20% of PET bottles are recycled,8 compared to a rate of 5% for glass packaging.' Creating Market Demand Recycling of such easily recognized packaging is likely to grow as long as demand for recycled material grows as well. However, a draw back to recycling any material is that supply of recycled material frequently outstrips demand, creat ing the need to store those items collected for recycling until use levels rise or new applications are developed. Also, the cost to pro duce recycled material cannot ex ceed that of virgin material if recy cling is to be economically viable. These limitations explain why only about 50% of all aluminum cans are recycled,' despite the fact that the feasibility of recycling alumi num has long been established. Establishing Practical Approaches Communities that hope to expand plastics recycling beyond easily recognized containers made from one type of plastic face a large task because of the many types of plas tic materials that can be used for packaging. Some recycling pro ponents are calling for labeling or coding of plastic packaging as to material of composition in order to address this issue and the Vinyl Institute supports the voluntary system recently developed by The Society of the Plastics Industry. However, labeling and "source sep aration," the process of sorting MSW components by type of mate rial, do not address the new trend in packaging towards "composites" - containers made up of several different materials. So-called "barrier" packages like the plastic ketchup bottle - with one or more materials forming the wall of a container and another the wall liner - are good examples of ad vanced composite packaging, but even the simplest package may in clude a cap of one material, a label of another, with the container itself being a third. For this reason, sup port is growing for the recycling of "commingled," or mixed, plastics. Commingled plastics eliminate the need for source separation and labeling, and also broaden the number of plastic materials that can be effectively recycled. Com mingled technology is being stud ied throughout the country, most notably at the Center for Plastics Recycling Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey. High technology laminated barrier packages combine different plastic mate rials to improce shelf life of food products and handling convenience. CTL016578 Are Plastics the Solid Waste Culprits? The makeup of today's MSW is somewhat different than it was five years ago. It contains a slightly larger percentage of plastic pack aging - a direct reflection of the increasing demand for the con venience and superior performance that plastics provide. Despite this, plastic packaging represents only 3-5% of the discards found in today's MSW.4 And, even if plastics were to replace all existing glass, metal and paper packaging, they would in crease to only a third of the cur rent MSW total.h By far, the largest proportion of disposed items con sists of 'traditional" materials: leaves, grass, textiles and paper. The Municipal Solid Waste Stream IWo-.' ..i I'.l.il Ili^jrJ^ Durable goods (appliances, furniture, etc.) Nondurable goods Iclothmg. newspapers, etc.l Containers and Packaging* Food Wastes Yard Wastes Misc. Wastes 14.P 25.6 32. h S.l 17 9 1.6 lon.ii'v Class Steel Aluminum Paper Plastics Wood Misc. 8.9 2.1 ().< 15.6 .> t 1.5 0.1 32.tv Four Reasons Why Plastics Are the Preferred Packaging Product Plastics are lightweight. They reduce shipping costs; are easier to handle. Plastics are safer. They provide an extra measure of safety for users: reduce breakage costs for bottlers, shippers and handlers. Plastics make innovative, convenient packaging possible. Plastics help food and medicine last longer, stay fresher. From clear to opaque, rigid to flexible, from simple "plastic wrap" to sophisticated pump dispensers, plastics are the package designer's - and the package user's - choice. CTL016579 Two Alternatives: Recycling and Resource Recovery Recycling is simply a way of salvag ing the reusable content of garbage and reprocessing it for further use. Essentially, there are three types of recycling: reuse of an existing article, refabrication into articles with short to moderate life spans and refabrication of articles with many years of useful life. Converting discarded plastic pack aging into pallet strapping rep resents a short-term recycling process; converting plastic pack aging into drainage pipe represents long-term recycling. Depending on the application into which a material has been refab ricated, recycling can remove a discarded product from the waste stream for several weeks or many years. When underground piping is fabricated from waste plastic pack aging, for instance, the material can remain out of the waste stream for over 40 years. When recycling is not feasible, or when a product has reached the end of its recyclable life, incinera tion provides yet another method for obtaining further value from it. The practice of incinerating or burning solid waste to recover energy is really another fw \ form of recycling, with v|ri4y heat or energy being the final product rather than reprocessed material. Incineration has been used in the United States since 1885 to process MSW.4 While early incinerators often were blamed for generating dust and foul odors, state-of-theart installations now operate cleanly and efficiently - so much so that they are the preferred method of MSW management in much of Europe and Japan. This growing popularity also is due to the other benefits that incineration provides. For example, there is no need to separate waste components for special handling: all items in the solid waste stream - combusti bles like paper and yard wastes, noncombustibles like metal and glass - can be processed alike. Incineration also substantially re duces the volume of waste destined for landfilling. Incineration typi cally reduces MSW volume by as much as 90% and weight by up to 75%, with only the ash from combustion and non-burnables remaining.'1 Today, incinerators operate under regulations of the U.S. Environ mental Protection Agency, which sets strict standards for many types of incinerator emissions. Addi tional regulations are under con sideration that would broaden the list of incinerator emissions con trolled by the EPA and tighten guidelines for disposal of inciner ator ash.14 At the same time, improved scrub ber technology has reduced incin erator emissions and new haz ardous waste processing tech nology is addressing the problem of residues which result from the incineration of items such as bat teries and other heavy-metal con taining products.11 * Incineration with Energy Recovery: Additional Benefits eliminates source separation eliminates deposit systems significantly reduces MSW weight and volume CTL016580 The Solid Waste Dilemma Every year, Americans generate over 140 million tons of garbage or "municipal solid waste."1 That's more than 1,240 pounds for every man, woman and child. Currently, over 90% of this municipal solid waste - or MSW - is disposed of in landfills.-' Many cities, however, are facing a landfill crisis as the num ber of suitable sites decreases and opposition to new sites increases. New York City, for example, esti mates that its current landfill space will be totally depleted by the year 2000.J MSW managers now realize that landfilling also squanders a valu able resource: the potential mate rial and energy recoverable from products disposed of in landfills such as paper, yard wastes and plastics. As an alternative, many municipalities now are turning to recycling and incineration as better ways to manage the solid waste di lemma. In the future, landfill dis posal most likely will be used only where recycling or incineration are, not appropriate or effective. Revised and Updated