PVC in Leuchtturm sheets

Dear Collectors,

Recently, I bought Leuchtturm Optima album and one pack of 5 sheets for 12 holders. I noticed that the sheets themselves are quite soft and bend well. Is there really no PVC in such sheets? It’s just I have non-PVC sheets from another manufacturer that were purchased  about 10 years ago. They are quite way more rigid and crack easily when banding.

Leuchtturm / Lighthouse doesn't list the exact type of plastic used in Optima sheets, only describing them as made of archival quality film, 100% free of chemical softeners and acids.

There are countless polymers that bend without softeners, personally I would find it anoying if my sheets break all the time due to their rigidity.

I remember a discussion (LINK) and it seems that Leuchtturm/Lighthouse has some PVC products but they would need to be very stiff, even stiffer then your probably PET-type sheets.

There is one thing I have found out is that for the Leuchtturm / Lighthouse Grande range which should be similar ( but you can always email their support / customer service - they are very responsive ) is that the clear inserts are polyester - so a PET plastic - archive safe, but the ones with black are PVC.  I am trying to find details.

I see many companies claim their PVC is additive and acid free - but there is not a single site that recommends PVC.  OPP/PET seem to be the best bet.  Would love an expert to give us advice on the reality of the situation with “safe” PVC.

Would have thought a company like Leuctturm would have stayed away from PVC.  I have from a different manufacter a similar sheet which claims to be acid etc free - in the one year I was away - they have gone green.

There is PVC-U (unplasticized) or hard PVC that should be quite unproblematic, but it should be quite rigid and is most likely opaque as far as I know, so not the most ideal material for sheets.

I buy these for storing my cardboard 2x2 flips. They are sort of soft too, but definitely not as soft as the PVC albums I used when I started collecting. One way to tell if it's PVC is to smell it. PVC plastic has a strong smell to it.

That's not a sufficient metric for polymer identification, many plastics exude their more volatile components like plasticisers such as bisphenols and pthalates (in the case of non rigid PVC but not only) and remnant monomers from the polymerisation process.

I agree that smell is not an ideal test.  There's no difference in smell between for example lighthouse 2S (PVC) and 2C (polyester).

Indolenz, leuchturm say the PVC is unplastized as you mention.  The pages are flexible with some rigidity.  The clear part is as opaque as the polyester I would say.  Some images below

2S polyester grande pages

3S (S or shwarz … black) Pvc on the left.  3rd party PVC Page on right … more rigid but tends to bend …. This manufacturers coin sleeves turned them green during covid when I was stuck away.  They also claim acid and additive free …