An overview on the recycling of waste poly(vinyl chloride)

Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most important plastics derived from petroleum, which has been extensively used in everyday life for the last few decades due to its superior properties. Without reasonable manageability, the volume of PVC is increasing steadily in the natural world. Owing to its features of non-biodegradability, the traditional disposal of PVC waste by either pouring it into the oceans or landfilling causes serious environmental issues. Due to sustainable development, PVC solid waste can be recycled to obtain products with the same quality as the starting material, reused in other fields, or converted into other high-value chemicals. Over the past decades, great progress has been made in the recycling of PVC. In this review, we initially provide a brief introduction to PVC, including its chemical structure, annual production and application fields, followed by an overview of mechanical approaches, including separation techniques, inclusion in other materials, and non-conventional mechanical recycling. The advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are also considered. Various chemical approaches to converting PVC waste into new products or chemicals to enhance the sustainability of the environment, such as gasification, pyrolysis, and de-chlorination are discussed in detail. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives of recycling PVC solid waste are discussed.