PVC free irrigation
Why PVC free irrigation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Is ?
What is PVC?
There’s a good reason why manufacturers call it, “PVC.” Calling by its real name lends some hard and horrible reality to what PVC actually is. You may be saddened to hear that PVC stands for Polyvinyl Chloride. Sounds bad, doesn’t it? It’s actually much worse than that.
It has become apparent that this seemingly harmless plastic, PVC, is one of the most environmentally hazardous consumer materials ever produced. Although it appears to be the ideal building material, PVC has high environmental and human health costs that its manufacturers fail to tell consumers. If you’ve learned that PVC is totally safe, you’ve been lied to. PVC (polyvinyl chloride or vinyl) is the worst plastic from an environmental health perspective, threatening major, singular hazards from its inception to its disposal. In other words, PVC becomes harmful the second it’s created until it is disposed of – and even at that point, it still poses toxic exposure inside a landfill or incinerator. That means it emits toxic compounds when it’s being made, while you have it and when it gets disposed of.
One form of PVC free irrigation.
The Making of PVC and Beyond
During the manufacture of the building block ingredients of PVC (such as vinyl chloride monomer) dioxin (the most potent carcinogen known) and other persistent pollutants are emitted into the air, water and land, which present both acute and chronic health hazards. During use, PVC products can leach toxic additives, for example flooring can release softeners called phthalates. When PVC reaches the end of its useful life, it can be either landfilled, where it leaches toxic additives or incinerated, again emitting dioxin and heavy metals. When PVC burns in accidental fires, hydrogen chloride gas and dioxin are formed.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is unique in its high chlorine and additives content, which makes it an environmental poison throughout its life cycle. Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen, which can lead to a number of cancers, endocrine disruption, endometriosis, neurological damange, birth defects, impaired child development and reproductive and immune system damage. PVC releases dioxin and other persistent organic pollutants during its manufacture and disposal and cannot be readily recycled due to it chlorine and additive content. Furthermore, additives are not bound to the plastic and leach out.
Dioxins from PVC – The Impact
Dioxin’s impact doesn’t stop there. As a persistent bioaccumulative toxin (PBT), it does not break down rapidly and travels around the globe, accumulating in fatty tissue and concentrating as it goes up the food chain. Dioxins from Louisiana manufacturing plants migrate on the winds and concentrate in Great Lakes fish. Dioxins are even found in hazardous concentrations in the tissues of whales and polar bears and in Inuit mother’s breast milk. The dioxin exposure of the average American already poses a calculated risk of cancer of greater than 1 in 1,000 - thousands of times greater than the usual standard for acceptable risk. Most poignantly, dioxins concentrate in breast milk to the point that human infants now receive high doses, orders of magnitude greater than those of the average adult.
Lethal Additives
PVC is useless without the addition of a plethora of toxic chemical stabilizers - such as lead, cadmium and organotins - and phthalate plasticizers. These leach, flake or outgas from the PVC over time raising risks fthat include asthma, lead poisoning and cancer.
Construction and PVC
The construction industry has been unaware of its true cost and long considered it a cheap convenient material. Piping, vinyl siding, and vinyl flooring are the largest and most familiar uses of PVC. In landscaping PVC is primarily used in irrigation. Roof membranes have been a growing area. It is also used in electrical wire insulation, conduit, junction boxes, wall coverings, carpet backing, window and door frames, shades and blinds, shower curtains, furniture, flues, gutters, down spouts, waterstops, weatherstrip, flashing, moldings and elsewhere. Fortunately, for each of these uses, there exist a wide range of cost effective alternative materials that pose less of a health hazard to workers and the public at large.
Alternatives
Replacing PVC in your projects is easier than you may think. A number of resource guides are available to help you find green construction materials. But beware: some construction materials labeled “green” actually contain recycled PVC/vinyl and frequently require virgin PVC mixed with the recycled.
* Piping
Cast iron, steel, concrete vitrified clay, and plastics such as HDPE (high density polyethylene).
* The information about PVC in this posting is from this web page titled .
Ecological landscaping is for thinking people.
After reading the information above you might ask how does ecological landscaping address the PVC issue? This is a vexing problem. If you go to an irrigation store, PVC is the main product available. While some of us are happy watering by hand, and yes one form of PVC free irrigation is no irrigation system at all, in the built landscape we need a way of getting water to the plants in an efficient and convenient manner.
What we are using these days is HDPE (high density polyethylene). This is non PVC plastic piping that plumbers are using in new home construction. For instance in radiant heated floors HDPE is used to deliver the warm water for the radient heat. At Terra Nova we are adapting this product for use in irrigation.
Here is underground irrigation being installed with PVC free HDPE (high density polyethylene).
Another upside of using HDPE pipe is that no toxic primer or glue is needed because the pipe joints are connected using a mechanical process.
This tool is used to make the joint connections. The installer is spared breathing toxic fumes from the primer and glue. If you have ever installed PVC pipe you can appreciate what a benefit that is!
Drip systems are built with polyethylene, which is a non PVC soft tubing.
As you can see we really get wraped up in our work.
We’re proud to offer PVC free irrigation for all you thinking people out there.