The European Parliament has put aside scientific evidence and asked the European Commission to stop any recycling of PVC in Europe that might contain a plasticiser known as DEHP, despite evidence from EU experts that the substance poses minimal risk to public health.

The European Parliament has put aside scientific evidence and asked the European Commission to stop any recycling of PVC in Europe that might contain a plasticiser known as DEHP, despite evidence from EU experts that the substance poses minimal risk to public health.

The substance has been banned in new PVC under the EU’s Regulation for chemical authorisation known as REACH, but the parliament wants all recycled PVC containing DEHP to go to landfill, rather than be used for recycling plastic products, at a significant environmental cost.

Shutting down the recycling of PVC not only undermines the EU’s commitments to recycling, but it will also significantly drive up the environmental costs of PVC, with the environmental cost of virgin PVC being around 28 times higher that of recycled PVC.

Responding to the vote, Julie Girling, European Conservatives and Reformists Group environment spokesman, said:

“We should follow real facts and science here, and all the scientific evidence said that there is minimal risk to consumers in recycling PVC containing DEHP. We are supposed to be promoting a culture of recycling in Europe and yet we start trying to ban the recycling of everyday plastics based on poor science. We set up a chemicals authorisation procedure so that chemicals would be authorised by facts and evidence, not by politicians making populist assertions.”