Polyvinyl chloride is an amorphous thermoplastic synthetic material which is soft, malleable and suitable for technical applications because of its additives. PVC can be inked well and is well-known for its uses in window profiles, pipes and cable insulations. Like all synthetic materials, PVC is a good insulator, hardly lets in any water and is resistant to alcohol, acids, lyes, oil and petrol/gasoline.

Almost 40% of PVC applications are used in the building sector. Pipes don’t clog easily due to their smooth inside, window profiles are easy to clean and maintenainable, are weather-proof and can be produced in all sorts of shapes and color. Inflammable products like cable channels are also produced from PVC.

PVC is chemically stable and hardly rots. Its reaction to sunlight is only slightly corrosive leaving the mechanical characteristics in tact. Products and packaging made from PVC are resistant to seawater and air and have no negative effect on the environment when desposed of. For PVC products such as pipes, frames and windows, there are full-coverage recycling systems in the synthetic material processing industry, so that environmental damage with respect to waste disposal can be considerably reduced.

Furthermore, it is possible to reuse PVC parts and to insert them in new products as recycled material. Approx. eighty percent of newly produced PVC had to be used in the early years of production, whereas nowadays material can be produced with about seventy percent high-quality recycled synthetic material. An advantage of this recycling method is that it can be processed at no more than 200 degrees centigrade, which means that no high emissions are produced.