Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

Environment friendly?

A couple of weeks back we had a wet day here on Gran Canaria. Marco carried on up on the slopes wearing his SBR coat etc. Meanwhile, I needed a few things from town. I popped on my black PVC mack and set off in the car.

The local town is relatively small but it has all the essential shops, a small harbour which is visited twice daily by the Fred Olsen Fast Inter Island Ferry, and a few coffee/wine bars. The ferry was in the harbour when I got to town.

I did all my shopping and then popped into a bar for a coffee before going home.

Sat at the bar was a couple, clearly tourists, who had probably come off the ferry and would go back on the afternoon one after a day out from wherever they were staying. They were about 30 years of age and spoke with strong London area accent.
We exchanged pleasantries and then the women asked me if my PVC mack was recyclable. This took me back a bit as I had never considered a time might come when I might want to dispose of my mack unless I needed to replace it. So, I replied that I had no idea but anyway I wasn’t about to get rid of it.

So, does anybody on this forum know if PVC clothing is recyclable or not? My personal guess is that it isn’t.
If push came to shove, I would keep my PVC macks etc for home use and use my black SBR coats, boots and sou’westers instead. I prefer SBR to PVC anyway but in this local climate SBR can get a bit more sweaty to wear than PVC and, as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.
But can anybody answer the question ‘Is PVC clothing recyclable or not?’ Over to you.

Hi

If the coat is just pvc with no cloth backing it is recyclable although there is no system for you to do so.

All this hype about PVC destroying the world is pissing me off. Only 10% Of pvc that could of been recycled has been done so because humans are lazy. We live in a throw away society, its not the fact that PVC cannot be recycled its the fact that there are insufficient systems to do so and even if there was people would be too lazy to sort their plastics out and recycle them.

PVC is not the enemy humans are!

My PVC coats etc are all high quality, some backed and others not.

However, I think that there is a lot of confusion about what is recyclable or not. Most ordinary don't understand about 'plastics' and think that plastic is plastic. PV, PU, and all others are a total mystery. Why can you recycle a 'plastic' bottle but not its 'plastic' top. If the authorities want us to recycle more they have to either explain the differences or put sorting processes in place. Then comes "Who wants to pay"!

My PVC coats etc are all high quality, some backed and others not.

However, I think that there is a lot of confusion about what is recyclable or not. Most ordinary don't understand about 'plastics' and think that plastic is plastic. PV, PU, and all others are a total mystery. Why can you recycle a 'plastic' bottle but not its 'plastic' top. If the authorities want us to recycle more they have to either explain the differences or put sorting processes in place. Then comes "Who wants to pay"!

How I agree with you pvculike, if plastic, or any material etc. were disposed of properly, there would be no problem. Humans are lazy! Plastic and PVC are not the enemy, it is humans that cause the problem.