GreenPeace's Plastics Pyramid

Greenpeace has developed a pyramid of plastics to assist those making material selection, to avoid PVC use. The guidance focuses on the toxic characteristics of the potential alternative materials. It provides a qualitative ranking based on environmental and health problems of PVC, addressing the production, additives, product emissions during use, disposal and recycling.

Read more about Greenpeace's PVC Alternatives Database

Check out some of their links

Know your plastic PVC alternatives

This 1999 University of Massachusetts report on PVC alternatives has some good, basic information on plastic additives as well as options for specifying alternatives to PVC.

All plastics, including bio-based plastics, require the use of additives to aid processing, enhance material properties (reinforce), reduce material costs (fillers) and impart specific characteristics such as stability (heat and light), flexibility, flame resistance, provide color and aesthetics, etc.  Because of its brittle nature and heat sensitivity, PVC by far uses the greatest amount of additives of any commercial resin. 

When plastics are used, there is always a possibility that incorporated additives may migrate in small amounts to product surfaces, and into the surrounding media. Thus migration may lead to some human exposure to additives. 

A Review of the Availability of Plastic Substitutes for Soft PVC in Toys