The European Commission has adopted and published new rules limiting the concentration of lead and lead compounds in PVC. The new Regulation will restrict the permitted concentration of lead in PVC placed on the market or used to 0.1 per cent by weight. The threshold was set at 0.1 per cent rather than at zero to allow for the continued sale of PVC material produced with "clean recycling technologies" such as chemical recycling or solvent dissolution which may contain very small amounts of lead.
The new legislation includes a ten-year derogation for some articles containing recovered rigid PVC, subject to additional conditions. The ban on all other PVC containing more than the permitted level of lead is to go into effect 18 months after the Regulation enters into force, that is, on 28 October 2025....
