TomatoVinyl is an excellent material for packaging because it is safe, sturdy, economical, easily manufactured and environmentally responsible. In rigid or flexible form, vinyl is used to package a wide range of products, including:
Electronics  Household goods 
Personal Care Products  Toys 
Medicine  Food 
Health Care Devices  Liquids 

Flexible vinyl is used for food wrap, jar lids and can linings; for tamper-proofing over-the-counter medications, and for shrink-wrapping games, software and household goods.

Rigid vinyl film is widely used in blister and clamshell packaging to protect toys, hardware, electronics, personal care products and household goods.

Vinyl bottles store household and personal-care products and automotive lubricants.

Vinyl packaging's major benefits are:

  • Energy Efficiency - Vinyl uses at least 20 percent less energy than common alternatives.1
  • Low Use of Fossil Fuel - Fifty-seven percent of the PVC molecule is derived from salt and only 43 percent from natural gas or crude oil, while 100 percent of traditional alternatives come from fossil fuel.
  • Safety - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the use of vinyl in packaging, provided residual vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) levels are below 10 parts per billion (PPB) in rigid PVC and five ppb in plasticized, flexible PVC.
  • Environmentally responsible - Life cycle analyses done by the European Commission and Plastics Europe indicate that vinyl often is the best environmental choice for packaging.2
  • Low dioxin source - Vinyl manufacturing accounts for less than half of one percent of dioxin emissions, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.3
  • Safe manufacturing - Government data show that vinyl workers' injury and illness rates are less than the average for all manufacturing.

Notes:
1 Plastics Europe Eco Profiles
http://www.plasticseurope.org/content/default.asp?PageID=392
2 Life Cycle Assessment of PVC and of Principal Competing Materials, commissioned by the European Commission, July 2004.
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/chemicals/sustdev/pvc-final_report_lca.pdf
3 U.S. EPA Inventory of Sources of Dioxin in the United States including poorly quantified sources
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=159286