What is Polyvinyl Alcohol?

It’s a chemistry wonder! Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA, PVOH or PVAI) is a synthetic polymer. This means it’s made up of many molecules strung together like a necklace. PVA starts as ethylene. Then, oxygen and acetic acid (or vinegar when it’s diluted) turn the ethylene into vinyl acetate — which is then dissolved into alcohol to become Polyvinyl Alcohol.

What is Polyvinyl Alcohol used for?

So many things you may not even realize!

• It makes yarn stronger.
• It makes fast food paper wraps grease resistant.
• It’s safe enough to be used in your eyes as a lubricant.
• It’s even used to create Slime!

Is Polyvinyl Alcohol bad for you?  

Not at all! We like PVA because it’s sturdy, has no colour, doesn’t smell, is biodegradable & is non-toxic!

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Does Polyvinyl Alcohol contain microplastics?

We get this question all the time! There is definitely a lot of misinformation out there. An independent German study (Degruyter, March 2021) concludes that the PVA in our Podz does NOT contribute to the Planet's micro-plastics issue.

According to the study:

• Our Podz PVA casing dissolves into a non-harmful monomer (i.e., NOT microplastics)
• The study concludes that PVA does NOT meet any of the definitions of micro-plastic: 1) it is not micro- or nano-sized; 2) it is highly water-soluble; 3) it is biodegradable in the environmental condition where it is discharged (i.e., the bottle you saved from landfill)

To sum up: the science tells us PVA non-toxic monomers are a whole lot better than having billions of single-use plastic bottles in landfill, or even worse, in our poor ocean animals’ stomachs.

Is Polyvinyl Alcohol the same as Polyvinyl Acetate?

Nope! It’s easy to confuse the different polyvinyl polymers, especially since they all go by PVA. Polyvinyl acetate (aka PVA, PVAc) is used in wood glue. Polyvinyl chloride is a poisonous plastic.