be virtually perfect since even a small amount of PVC contaminates other more recyclable plastics like PET. PVC that can be recycled is invariably low quality, suitable for only the lowest grade uses like park benches. In the United States and Canada, just 0.1 percent of post-consumer PVC is now recycled. In the European Union, the figure stands at 3 percent (McGinn, 2000, p. 54). In the face of the coming avalanche of PVC waste, the highest possible percentage for PVC recycling projected for 2020 is 18 percent. Dumping PVC also creates problems, leaching out chlorine and phthalate additives, and contaminating groundwater. Even in high-tech landfills, PVC will tend to outlast the materials used to construct leachate collection systems. Incineration is the worst disposal option, since PVC burning almost inevitably means dioxin creation. Medical and municipal incineration accounts for 69 percent of known dioxin and furan releases into the atmospheresome 7,000 kilograms a year and at least half of this is due to PVC (Ackerman, 2002). These same poisons are released by accidental fires, which, not incidentally, constitute an unprecedented occupational hazard for firefighters today. Despite the ubiquitousness of vinyl in modern society, it is important to recognize that it dominance has been achieved more because of its profitability than because of its usefulness. While its wartime role in replacing rubber (primarily for wire insulation) helped jumpstart mass production (McGinn, 2000; Thornton, 2000), the PVC industry really originated in the need for the petrochemical industry to find a use for a troublesome toxic waste product of alkali and caustic soda production: chlorine gas. As Commoner (1990; 1992) and others have emphasized, vinyl has grown by displacing existing less toxic products that served fairly well in meeting peoples needs. PVC