Polyvinyl chloride, known as PVC or vinyl, is the cornerstone plastic in modern healthcare. Its unique balance of safety, versatility, and proven performance has made it indispensable for over 70 years — from life-saving devices and pharmaceutical packaging to hospital infrastructure and emergency response.
Today, vinyl is the single most used polymer in disposable medical devices, with a market share of around 30%. Most strikingly, it is the only material approved for blood bags, enabling safe storage of red blood cells for up to 49 days — a critical function no other plastic can match.
Beyond this, vinyl is also essential in tubing, masks, flooring, wall coverings, mattress covers, ambulance equipment, rescue gear, field hospitals, and many other health-related applications. Further, pharmaceuticals rely heavily on vinyl for their development, production, packaging, and distribution.
At the same time, vinyl is part of healthcare’s circular future. Through initiatives such as VinylPlus® Med and VinylPlus® PharmPack, medical PVC in form of medical devices and blister packaging is collected and recycled into new, durable products — reducing waste and supporting Europe’s climate and sustainability goals.
Flexible Containers
Flexible containers include containers for blood, urine continence and ostomy products, and intravenous solution-giving sets. PVC is the only material that is able meet the strict requirements for blood bags, including a storage time of up to 49 days for red blood cells.
Medical Tubing
Medical tubing must be clear, flexible, kink- and scratch-resistant, tough, easy to bond, and suitable for sterilisation. While other thermoplastics have been tested, none match PVC’s performance and its unique balance of kink resistance and affordability.
The Widest Variety of Medical Applications
As the most versatile plastic available, PVC or vinyl is used for a wide range of other medical devices and healthcare-related applications. These products include oxygen maks, examination and surgical gloves, blister packaging, catheters and cannulae, endotracheal tubing, mattress covers, rescue gear, and much more! Discover examples below:
Benefits of PVC in Healthcare
The many advantages of PVC in healthcare include:
Circular Economy in Healthcare
Hospitals use a lot of single-use PVC-based medical devices and pharmaceutical blister packaging every day. Besides being safe and affordable, PVC is easily recyclable and keeps its technical properties through numerous recycling cycles. Also, many of the devices are used for a few seconds and are not contaminated with bodily fluids or medicines. These advantages have led to the set-up of recycling systems in the healthcare sector.
PVC: Pioneering Recycling of Medical Devices and Pharmaceutical Packaging
VinylPlus® Med develops collection and recycling schemes for clean, non-infectious PVC medical devices, while VinylPlus® PharmPack works to improve the recyclability of pharmaceutical blister packaging and explore new end-of-life solutions. Since 2025, these initiatives have been brought together under the VinylPlus Healthcare platform to coordinate and strengthen sustainability efforts across the healthcare sector.
Innovation in Medical Plasticisers
Softness and flexibility are key properties for medical devices. This is, for example, crucial for tubing that goes inside the body, which must be as soft as possible for optimum patient treatment and comfort. In order to make PVC medical devices soft and flexible, a plasticiser (US: plasticizer) is added to the PVC compound.
Safe Alternatives to DEHP Available
The low molecular weight (LMW) phthalate DEHP has historically been the most used plasticiser in medical PVC. The substance has been under increasing scrutiny by regulatory and medical authorities, and in the EU its continued use in medical devices requires robust justification under the Medical Device Regulation. The REACH sunset date is 1 July 2030.
As part of their commitment to innovation, continuous improvement of safety, performance and cost-efficiency, companies within the medical PVC value chain have progressively made available a wide range of alternatives to DEHP plasticiser for medical applications, which are approved by the European Pharmacopeia. These include DINCH, DEHT, TOTM and BTHC. With the new plasticisers, patients and healthcare professionals can continue to benefit from PVC's unique properties while avoiding LMW phthalates of concern.