Scorecard Shows Some Plastics Are “Cleaner” Than Others

Plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyester, polypropylene, polycarbonate, and polystyrene have long been common in our building products. The environmental movement has pushed manufacturers to tout durability and recycled content in their products, but a more sophisticated trend is to tout some plastics as being “cleaner” than others. What is a clean plastic?

Almost all plastics are made from chemicals obtained from fossil fuels, many of which are chemicals of high concern, including: