I’m possibly a bit late with this now (sorry Su!) but I just spotted this question and wondered if anyone had any advice/info/suggestions for further research.

Good friend of Recycle This and The Really Good Life Su asked:

Next week I am at a conference all week. One of the motions for discussion (which is supported) is about replacing union reps and H&S reps existing card cards with plastic credit card type. If this motion actually gets discussed (it probably won’t get prioritised) I intend to speak against the motion.

However, I need as much ‘ammunition’ as possible and wondered if anybody knew anything about the emissions released during manufacture, how long if ever, they take to degrade & anything else that might be relevant. Call this pre-emptive reducing!

I know that most credit cards are made from PVC which is hard to recycle, doesn’t readily breakdown and releases nasty chemicals if burned and during its manufacture – Greenpeace want PVC restricted/banned, as it already is in some European countries. It is possible (just a bit more expensive) to have credits cards made from PET (plastic code 1) — that’s a lot more widely recycled but still obviously uses resources in its manufacturing.

A bit of digging turned up this story from Slate magazine in 2009, which says about PVC cards:

It takes about 4.25 grams of petroleum to manufacture one 5-gram credit card. Multiply that by 1.6 billion — the number of credit, debit, and ATM cards produced in America in 2007 — and we’re looking at roughly 45,000 barrels of oil a year just to make the plastic that feeds our late-night eBay sprees. Granted, that’s a drop in the bucket compared with the 20 million barrels Americans consume daily. But those figures don’t include the billions of gift cards, loyalty cards, and store charge cards we stuff in our wallets each year.

And apparently:

In addition [to the petroleum], a variety of laminates, inks, dyes and other chemicals are used in their production.

Anyone else got anything else Su could use?

We’ve had an email from Ann:

The centre where I work has just rebranded and they’ve made us get rid of all the protective aprons we use for messy art classes as they had the old name on them. I think they’re PVC. Can they be recycled?

I would have thought most textile reclamation companies would accept them – because before actual recycling, they might be reusable by people less bothered about having the correct brand on them. Similarly there may be community groups in your local area that would like them – but it does, unfortunately, depend on how obsessive the organisation is about the brand stuff — I know some places are really annoyingly single-minded about that sort of thing and will send all sorts of new items to landfill to avoid any confusion about their current name/logo.

Could the aprons be adapted or repurposed so they can still be used internally? I’m imagining they’re full length aprons – if the logo is just on the top bit, could it be covered up? Or cut down to make a waist apron?

Or could the non-branded bits of the apron be upcycled into something else? Placemat-style table coverings? Might be useful for messy sessions.

Any other ideas for reusing/repurposing/upcycling them? Or actual recycling suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Martyn:

Can solid pond liners be recycled? If so, where please?

As far as I can see, rigid pond liners tend to be made from fibreglass and as we discovered last time we had a fibreglass item on here, fibreglass can be recycled but isn’t widely done so.

A better idea would be to reuse the pond liner. They apparently have a 20 year lifespan as ponds but after that they, presumably, begin to leak. (No one mentions what happens after that 20 years – I hope it’s start to leak and not explode violently killing everyone in a 50m radius. Because that would be bad.) If you don’t need it as a pond any more, offer it on Freecycle/Freegle to someone who wants one. Or if it’s started to leak and is beyond repair, you (or someone else) might want to use it as a planter or the like.

Any other ideas?

And what about reuse ideas for flexible PVC pond liners that have been damaged or are leaking?

John is very taken with the idea of getting an exercise ball to use when he wants a change from his desk chair in our new office. He’s used them at other people’s desks and he likes the idea of bouncing while he works.

I’ve always poo-poohed the idea because we have cats who like to stretch up against furniture then dig in their very long, very sharp claws – not exactly compatible with inflatable furniture – but a friend told us his cat did that too and it wasn’t a problem because the PVC plastic is so thick. Then suddenly, mysterious, he found himself sitting considerably lower in the chair thanks to a claw-sized slow puncture. Claws one, inflatable thing nil.

So we won’t be getting on now but what are the options for reusing an old exercise ball? A single puncture or two could probably be repaired with a bicycle puncture repair kit but if the problem is more systemic, it might not be worth repair – so what else can be done with it?

I suspect with a bit of handiwork, they could still be used as seats – filled with beanbag balls instead of air – but I wonder if the sliced up “skin” could be used for anything else too…

We’ve had an email from Heather:

I have a former airbed — the pump has failed mechanically and is built in so it can’t be replaced — so I could cut the material away from it if I had an idea what to do with it. the bottom is just pvc sheet, the top is the same but with a fabricy surface.

I suspect some of the suggestions for old inflatables and (from a plastic sheeting point of view) old shower curtains may be relevant – but has anyone got any specific suggestions for Heather?

(UPDATE: Sorry for the downtime this evening – unexpected and unplanned. Grrr, computers suck sometimes.)