It makes excellent use of scarce resources, is long-lasting and safe in production, use and disposal. Vinyl is also suitable for a wide and diverse range of applications which surround us in everyday life and plays a major role in promoting health, security and safety. There are few synthetic materials which have been researched as thoroughly as vinyl. Its effect on health and the environment has been investigated at every stage from manufacture through use and on to final disposal of the products made from vinyl. All these benefits have made vinyl the second-largest commodity plastic, for which demand continues to grow.
Most commodity plastics have carbon and hydrogen as their main component elements.
The presence of chlorine in the molecule makes vinyl particularly versatile because it makes it compatible with a wide range of other materials. The chlorine content also helps to make vinyl, or PVC, flame retardant . It can be used as a 'marker' to distinguish vinyl products in automatic sorting systems for plastics recycling. However, some misinformation still circulates about the environmental, health , and safety performance of vinyl. We'd like to set the record straight .