Valorization of harmful substances in the chemical recycling of polyvinyl chloride

Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), due to its high chlorine content and the presence of biohazardous plasticizers, causes greater environmental harm when processed through traditional recycling process, including incineration and landfilling. In this paper, the ways of producing harmful substances in PVC during traditional heat treatment were analyzed, including the release of chlorine, greenhouse gases and plasticizers. According to the sources of these harmful substances, corresponding environmental protection processes are selected across three aspects, chlorine, hydrocarbons and plasticizers, aiming to reduce the environmental pressure caused by waste PVC and maximize its value to avoid wastage of resources. The results show that some recycling methods cause little environmental harm and offer economic benefits in various aspects, but it is still difficult to integrate these methods to form a set of PVC recycling processes with both economic and ecological benefits.