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Comment by airstrike | Hacker News Reader

It seems like the title could benefit from the word "production" at the end for clarity

> The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday announced a review that could eventually lead to the end of PVC plastic production

There's a long way to go before PVC use is banned in the US

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If you can't produce it you won't be able to use it soon. A waterpipe breaks? You replace it with something else, not PVC, not lead. I have no idea what's a suitable material. Steel? Of course you might import all the PVC you need, but do you want to do that?

I would say it is likely that importing it would be the most cost-effective option, so it’ll still be used heavily. I imagine it’ll only fall heavily in usage if its manufacturing is outlawed in the places where importing it from would be cheap. I think that is pretty unlikely.

And if production is banned, industry is going to likely want to find something else to do with the input materials, which could easily be exporting it to where the production gets outsourced to.

Any legislation stemming from this effort would (and should) ostensibly forbid the import of said material, otherwise the production will shift overseas while usage will not noticably change.

In many cases that's the point. You don't want your own citizens to suffer manufacturing it, but you want them to enjoy the benefits of using it, so you ban manufacture but still allow use and just import everything you need.

It's like how all the asbestos and other hazardous waste that's removed from California homes gets dumped in Nevada and Arizona landfills. Or the subject of the documentary "Plastic China":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Kif9cugQ0

    "No contest"

(in "the voice"... What was it, Super Smash Brothers on GC? ;D)

Edit: Found it - https://youtube.com/watch?v=sHBsF8SKLGU&t=20

You can argue the should but I very much doubt that it would. We are very happy to let other countries do the dirty work of manufacturing and import the product, and the places that are most likely to manufacture are the least likely to outlaw the production themselves.

Why do you think it would do that, if the import poses no risk to the inhabitants of the country?

For potable water? PEX or HDPE. Annoyingly, PVC pipe is usually Schedule 40, and the others are usually CTS (copper tube size). So an extra complicated adapter would be needed. But one can connect PVC to PEX or HDPE or copper with a push-to-connect fitting.

PVC is also made in CTS size, it's very commonly used for underground service lines to homes.

Less common inside a home, but certainly available.

If you’re trying to repair an existing schedule 40 system, though, you’ll need some kind of schedule 40 fitting.

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