Picture this: you see some new ‘eco-friendly’ laundry sheets in the store, flip them over to check the ingredient list, and spot PVA. Polyvinyl Acetate… Hmm. What is PVA? And should it be in your home?
Let’s talk about it, because like most things regarding your health and the environment… it’s complicated.
PVA is short for Polyvinyl Acetate. It’s a synthetic polymer used across a wide variety of functions because it’s so versatile, but mostly applied as an adhesive or coating.
As a consumer, you’ll mostly see PVA in things like laundry pods or — for folks looking for a lower-waste options, ironically — in eco-friendly laundry sheets. This is because PVA is incredibly strong when dry but is also water soluble*, meaning that the outside of those laundry pods dissolve in water.
PVA is also used in white and wood glues because it forms incredibly strong bonds when it dries.
OK, technically yes, PVA is water soluble. All I mean by that is if you drop a laundry sheet in water, it will dissolve. That said, does this plastic actually, fully dissolve?
Probably not.
It’s important to note that most PVAs are not actually water soluble! Why? Because it’s not safe to assume your wastewater treatment plant has the exact specifications needed to fully break down PVA — most plants in the US do not have that capacity. That study just linked suggests that over 75% of PVA persists in our waterways and our soil after dissolution.
What does that mean? Each laundry pod or sheet you put into the wash is actually sending tons of tiny microscopic bits of plastic into our water streams. Not ideal.