In Strasbourg on Wednesday 12 February, the European Parliament opposed the European Commission's plan for special dispensation for small quantities of lead to be allowed in recycled PVC products again, on public health and environmental protection grounds.
MEPs objected to the proposal to amend Annex IV of the REACH regulation by 394 votes to 241, with 13 abstentions. This means in effect that they have sent the Commission back to the drawing board (see EUROPE 12408/12).
Although the Commission was proposing to limit the use and presence of lead and its components in items produced using PVC to 0.1% of the material’s weight, two dispensations were considered unacceptable. One of the dispensations would have allowed a lead concentration of up to 2% by weight in rigid PVC and the other would have permitted a lead concentration of up to 1% by weight in flexible PVC.
Health and environmental NGOs welcomed the vote, stating that lead is classed as a substance of very high concern under REACH and that there is no safe level of exposure to the heavy metal. Natacha Cingotti from HEAL said: “We congratulate MEPs for using their powers to urge the European Commission to walk the talk on the EU Green Deal”. Tatiana Santos from the EEB said that “the circular economy cannot become a dumping ground for contaminants”, and was pleased that Parliament has stood up for that principle.
By way of contrast, VinylPlus, the organisation responsible for implementing the PVC industry's voluntary commitment to sustainable development, condemned the brake on the circular economy, “contrary to the opinion of ECHA” (the European Chemicals Agency). Brigitte Dero, Managing Director of VinylPlus, said that “in the absence of any alternative solution, the logic of today’s vote is that many end-of-life PVC articles from long-life applications will have to be disposed of by incineration or landfill”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)