The honest picture
"Vinyl is recyclable" and "vinyl is almost never recycled" are both said in good faith. They describe different streams. Here is what the sources say, with each side in its own words.
Most recycled vinyl was never in anyone's home
In 2024 the US and Canada recycled about 1.127 billion lb of PVC. 1.056 billion lb of it was factory scrap. Only 71.3 million lb, about 6%, was post-consumer, and that figure fell, missing the industry's own target by 58%. Source: resource-recycling.com
The Vinyl Institute says vinyl products "are in service for decades," so most of the vinyl diverted from waste is "pre-consumer" or "post-industrial": scrap from manufacturing and installation. Source: vinylinfo.org
Household vinyl is effectively not recycled
Citing EPA data, Greenpeace USA found 960,000 tons of PVC in US municipal waste in 2017 with "negligible" recycling, and concluded it is "not reasonable for U.S. consumers to believe that PVC products that are collected by municipal systems will be recycled." Source: greenpeace.org
Municipal waste figures leave out construction and demolition debris, where most siding, pipe and windows end up. So that zero describes household and packaging vinyl, not all vinyl. Source: greenpeace.org
Old vinyl can carry old chemistry
Lead and cadmium were long used as stabilizers in PVC. US and EU makers have mostly moved to other stabilizers "in most — but not all — applications." Recycled PVC can carry the old additives into new products. Source: habitablefuture.org
The European PVC industry argues that lead locked in a PVC matrix "has a very low availability." New PVC being mostly lead-free and recycled PVC carrying old additives can both be true. Source: habitablefuture.org
The building block is a known carcinogen
Vinyl chloride, the chemical PVC is made from, is a known human carcinogen, and the EPA is evaluating its risks under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Source: epa.gov
Burning it: what we could confirm
Beyond Plastics and Toxic-Free Future report that vinyl chloride and PVC plants sent chlorinated waste and dioxins to incinerators, cement kilns and landfills. Source: beyondplastics.org
The EPA's dioxin inventory found that by 2000, uncontrolled backyard barrel burning was the largest quantifiable US source of dioxin. The EPA page does not attribute dioxin to PVC specifically. Source: 19january2025snapshot.epa.gov
Europe does more
Europe's industry network, Recovinyl, recycled 765,972 tonnes (about 1.69 billion lb) of PVC waste in 2025. The European and North American figures are not measured the same way. Source: recovinyl.com
The industry funds the fixes and reports the results
The Vinyl Institute's VIABILITY grants, funded by the resin makers Formosa, Oxy, Shintech and Westlake, had awarded more than $1.67 million by February 2024. Source: vinylinfo.org
The main US recycling statistics and the main US recycler directory both come from the Vinyl Institute, the industry's trade association. Source: vinylinfo.org
Who says what
Vinyl Institute, Vinyl Sustainability Council, PEPA
Vinyl is recyclable, and about 1.1 billion lb is recycled a year. Source: vinylinfo.org
Greenpeace USA
Post-consumer PVC recycling is negligible; #3 should not be labelled recyclable. Source: greenpeace.org
Beyond Plastics, Toxic-Free Future
PVC is the poison plastic and should be phased out. Source: beyondplastics.org
Healthy Building Network (now Habitable)
Recycled PVC can recirculate legacy toxics; screen what goes in. Source: habitablefuture.org