Life Cycle Assessment of Vinyl and TPO in Instrument Panel Skins

Vinyl (Polyvinyl chloride or PVC) is the second largest plastic sold in the world. Vinyl has been used to make instrument panel (IP) skins in the automotive market for over forty years. Recently, questions have been raised about vinyl's life cycle environmental impact. To address these questions, the Vinyl Institute (VI) and the Chlorine Chemistry Council (CCC) had Ecobalance (life cycle consulting firm) perform a life cycle analysis (LCA) comparison between a flexible Vinyl/ABS IP skin and a Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) IP skin. This paper will review the assumptions, analysis and conclusions of the LCA.