Measured emissions to air of different materials during lifetime.
All figures expressed in microgram I-TEQ
per ton material
| Product | production | recycling | fire | incineration | inciner. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| min | max | min | max | min | max | min | max | 1997 | |
| PVC: | 0.1 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 277 | <1 | |||
| PE: | ? | 0.0 | ? | 7.0 | 277 | <1 | |||
| glass: | 0.3 | 8.7 | ? | 0.0 | 0 | ||||
| steel: | 1.3 | 8.4 | 4.4 | 6.0 | 0.0 | 0 | |||
| aluminium: | ? | 1.7 | 35 | 0.0 | 0 | ||||
| copper: | ? | 5.0 | 2280 | 0.0 | 0 | ||||
| wood: | 1.0 | 4.1 | -- | -- | 13 | 135 | 7.0 | 277 | <1 |
| paper: | 0 | 0.2 | 14 (*) | ? | 7.0 | 277 | <1 | ||
As you can see, any production, recycling, (incidental) fire or incineration gives dioxins, PVC not more than other materials. From a lot of other materials, the amount of dioxins emitted in certain circumstances is not even measured. Why should you exchange PVC for alternatives to prevent dioxin emissions? The amount of dioxins, emitted by incinerators is completely depending on the quality of the incinerator, not on the amount of chlorine at the input. See Chlorine input and dioxin emissions. If all incinerators will fulfill the European law (stack gases below 0.1 ng/m3 I-TEQ), then the amount of dioxins emitted per ton will be below 1 microgram per ton incinerated.
Dioxin found in different materials. All figures as microgram I-TEQ/ton.
| Material | minimum | average | maximum |
| Different kinds of paper: | |||
| Recycled linerboard (chlorine free): | 2.5 | ||
| Totally chlorine free (TCF) Kraftpaper: | 0.35 | ||
| Deinked recyclepulp (newsprint): | 0.19 | ||
| Fresh newsprint: | 0.07 | ||
| Unbleached Kraft: | 0.02 | ||
| Bleached Kraft (ECF): | 0.01 | ||
| Other materials: | |||
| House furnace filter dust: | 170 | ||
| Car air-filter: | 84 | ||
| Room air-filter: | 27 | 29 | |
| Vacuum cleaner dust: | 8.3 | 12 | |
| Clothes dryer lint: | 2.4 | 6.0 | |
| Polyethylene packaging: | 0.1 | 4.7 | |
Comment: As you can see, there are no chlorine-free or dioxin-free materials. And 'totally chlorine free paper' not only doesn't exist, it contains at least 35 times more dioxin than paper, made by modern chlorine/chlorinedioxyde bleaching. See also Chlorine and paper bleaching.
Dioxin emissions from the production processes and (partly) incineration
of disposed windowframes.
All figures in ng I-TEQ dioxin per windowframe:
| Material | dioxin emissions | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| production | incineration | total | |
| PVC (15 kg): | 18 | 4 | 22 |
| Steel (10 kg): | 30 | 30 | |
| PVC + steel: | 48 | 4 | 52 |
| Wood (17 kg): | 47 | 20 | 67 |
| Aluminium (19 kg): | 285 | 285 | |
Large PVC windowframes are reinforced with steel.
The figures are including the recycling rates in Germany at this moment.
Dioxin emissions from the energy production
All figures in MJ for energy and ng I-TEQ
dioxin per windowframe:
| Material | energy use | dioxin emission |
| PVC incl. steel: | 910 | 0.02-4.2 |
| Wood: | 820 | 0.02-3.8 |
| Aluminium: | 2090 | 0.04-9.5 |
The amount of dioxins, emitted by energy production strongly depends of the energy source used. There are also very broad differences due to the quality of the firing for producing energy.
Accidental fires:
The only quantitative measurement of dioxin emissions from a PVC warehouse
fire gives, calculated for one windowframe ca. 65 ng of dioxins. Measurements
on wood fires are also in the same order of magnitude. Because less than
one house on one thousand will catch fire, this is in both cases neglible.
Source: "Schadstoffbilanzen - eine Quelle von Überaschungen!" (German: A balance of toxics, a source of surprices!) [11].
You are at level two of the Chlorophiles pages.
Created: April 8, 1996.
Last update: September 8, 2001.
Dioxin and PAH emissions compared
For any comment on emissions of dioxins from material production, use, recycling, disposal or incineration or on other Chlorophiles pages:
chlorophiles@pandora.be
