Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-04-02-Speech-1-072"
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"en.20010402.6.1-072"2
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"Mr President, PVC is the second most commonly used plastic. It poses significant environment and health problems over its entire life cycle. Those problems always go back to the same two causes: PVC contains chlorine, and requires the addition of a wide variety of hazardous additives in large quantities if it is to be functional.
The scientific studies commissioned by the Commission highlighted a number of key hazards relating to PVC, in particular during disposal. Landfilling is a ticking time-bomb due to the release of hazardous PVC additives and the potential for dioxin formation during landfill fires. Incineration of PVC makes the problem even worse, as apart from the risk of dioxin formation the hazardous residues resulting from PVC incineration may even exceed the quantities of PVC put into incineration. Recycling cannot solve the problem as potential recycling rates under ecological criteria are projected to reach only 5% by 2020. The problem is set to get worse, as waste quantities will increase significantly over the next decades.
At a public hearing organised by the European Commission last October there was a very strong and clear call for substitution of PVC. This call did not just come from environmentalists. It included a coalition of industry, waste-management, local and national authorities, environmental, health and consumer interests. There was very clear and strong support for the substitution of PVC. There is an obligation on the Commission and the EU to respect the wishes of the vast majority of the public. It seems to me that there is a huge amount of support for substitution, while only the PVC industry is reluctant. Whose interests come first? It has to be the interests of all those people that attended the Commission hearing.
The report on substitution calls for the introduction of substitution policies for certain product categories. We think this is a very good starting point, but it should not end there. We would like to see it extended to all categories, not just to some."@en1
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