Nearly every pipe in our home for water is PVC. As we are trying to eliminate plastic use in our home …. Is it just pointless with the source being at our peril.

https://www.beyondplastics.org/publications/perils-of-pvc-pipes

by HereComeTheDinosaurs

8 comments

  1. If you have pvc in place now, I would not make any modifications unless/until EPA issues new guidance and a different product is widely available. In the US at least, either PVC or ABS is the standard material for plumbing drain lines (the ones carrying waste to your sewer or septic). Environmental impacts aside, these products are known to be generally reliable and long lasting. That is, at least in comparison to the cast iron lines that were most common before ~1980.

    For supply lines (the ones delivering water from your city or well to your faucets), your best options are either copper or PEX.

  2. There are appropriate uses for plastics, and this is one of them. There just simply isn’t an alternative to utility pipes.

    Plastic that is used once and thrown away = bad.

    Plastic that maintains a useful lifespan of a century = good.

    Like, look at that graphic: replacing lead water service lines is of civilization-level importance.

  4. The pipes in your house are designed to last a minimum of 30 years. PVC is lightweight, easy to work with, chemically stable to most stuff you’d put down your drain.

    Copper is expensive and difficult to connect. Also not entirely resistant to corroision. Cast iron is even heavier and corrodes quickly. This is one case where plastic really outshine the alternatives.

  5. If you live in a hard water area an upside is all the piping gets a nice calcium coat to protect you from the plastic, asbestos, lead & whatever.

  6. As long as the world population is growing by over a million people per week, we aren’t going to reduce anything.

    I feel like this is a point missed in all of this. Every week an entire new large city exists. (Not literally)

  7. Cheaper than copper by thousands of dollars. If the pvc is silicone based, it will outlive you.

  8. not recommended to use regular pvc for hydrophonics and instead use upvc, so if used for drinking water and not just showering, it really should be investigated. And if filters remove the contaminants or not. Checked now, still irregular info, still until today deliberately blurred info it seems.

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