Page protectors: which plastic is safe for your photos

A page in a clear sleeve looks finished. It's also the method many experienced scrappers stick with after years of trying things out: few things protect a finished layout so easily. But not all plastic is the same. One sleeve keeps your photos clean for years, another turns sticky and leaves marks on whatever is inside. The difference comes down to a few letters on the packaging.

Why use page protectors

A page protector, also called a sheet protector or plastic sleeve, does more than look neat.

• It keeps fingerprints, dust and coffee splashes off your photos.
• Pieces that come loose, such as a ticket or an embellishment (a decoration like a button or a piece of chipboard), don't fall out of the album but stay in place.
• Two facing pages don't touch each other directly, so ink or glue from one page can't transfer to the other.
• You can easily move pages around, add new ones or move them to another album, especially in a ring binder.

With a bound album without sleeves, you can put a sheet of acid-free interleaving paper between the pages. That protects too, but it's less effective against fingers and dust.

Polypropylene, polyester and PVC

There are three kinds of plastic you'll come across most often. Two of them are fine, one isn't.

Polypropylene (PP) is the most widely used plastic for scrapbook page protectors. It's stable, doesn't give off anything, is flexible and affordable. It is a little less clear than polyester, though.

Polyester (PET), often sold under the brand name Mylar, is the clearest and the sturdiest. Museums and archives use it to store loose documents and photos. It is more expensive, though, and it can become static, so dust and loose bits cling to it.

Polyethylene (PE) is softer and slightly duller. You'll mainly find it in photo sleeves, negative sleeves and small bags. It's safe too.

PVC is the culprit. It's naturally rigid and is made flexible with plasticisers. Over time, these substances can leach out of the plastic and damage whatever is inside: photos discolour, the sleeve turns sticky and sometimes the photo ends up stuck to the plastic. That's why standards for photo-safe storage materials rule out PVC. Lots of cheap display books, old photo albums and older document sleeves are made of PVC.

How do you spot a safe page protector?

Sleeves made for scrapbooking or photos almost always say on the packaging which plastic they're made of. Look out for these points:

• The name of the plastic: polypropylene, polyester or polyethylene, or the abbreviations PP, PET and PE.
• The words PVC-free.
• A statement that the material has passed the PAT. The Photographic Activity Test (ISO 18916) is an international test that checks whether a storage material reacts with photographic material. It's the strongest proof that something is photo-safe.
• The recycling number in the little triangle, if there is one: a 3 means PVC, a 5 polypropylene, a 1 PET and a 2 or 4 polyethylene.

Nothing on it? Then your nose and hands can help. PVC often has that typical smell of a new paddling pool or a shower curtain, feels slightly greasy or rubbery and is very floppy. Polypropylene doesn't smell of anything and crackles a little when you bend it. If you're unsure, use that sleeve for something other than your photos.

The word archival on packaging doesn't mean much: it isn't a protected term. And acid-free is about paper and card, not plastic. With a sleeve, what counts is which plastic it is, not whether it says acid-free.

Page protectors for unusual sizes

The standard sizes are page protectors for 30.5 x 30.5 cm (12 x 12 inches) and for 21.6 x 27.9 cm (8.5 x 11 inches), plus sleeves in A4 and the smaller album sizes. For pocket scrapbooking there are pocket pages in all kinds of layouts, for example four or six pockets per page.

If something doesn't fit, there are a few handy solutions:

• Cut a large sleeve in half and use one half as a half page between two full pages. Finish the open edge with a strip of washi tape. Don't use staples near photos, as they can rust.
• Slip a long strip into a sleeve and sew a seam down the side with your sewing machine. That gives you a narrow pocket made to measure; trim off the excess.
• When choosing an album, think about the page protectors: every brand has its own hole pattern. Many 30.5 x 30.5 sleeves fit albums from different brands, but not always.
• For loose items that are too big, such as a poster or a whole newspaper, a larger sleeve or a flat folder alongside the album is better than folding.
• Small, bulky things like a coin or a pin badge fit in a small polypropylene bag that you attach to the page.

If you come up with your own solution, make sure you use the same safe plastic. A strip of PVC tape or an old display sleeve undoes all the rest of your care.

Don't they seal photos in too tightly?

It's a worry you hear a lot, and it's understandable. But a page protector isn't a sealed bag: the top or side is open, and air can simply get in. For dry pages in a normal room, that's not a problem. Stable plastics such as polypropylene and polyester don't give off anything themselves, so nothing builds up either.

It only becomes a risk when moisture gets into the sleeve. A page that's still damp from glue, paint or ink, or an album kept in a damp cellar or attic, can stay wet for longer in plastic than in the open air. That can lead to mould. So let pages dry completely before you slide them into a sleeve, and store your albums somewhere dry with a stable temperature.

There's one more thing with ordinary photos: don't squeeze them into a sleeve that's just too small. A sleeve that fits exactly or has a little room to spare is better than one that's stretched tight.

Replacing old page protectors

PVC used to be very common in photo albums, and the self-adhesive magnetic albums with sticky pages under a film are notorious too. If you have old albums or folders, give them a critical once-over. It's time to replace them if:

• the sleeve feels sticky, greasy or cloudy;
• the plastic has turned yellow or smells;
• you can see photos sticking to the plastic or leaving an imprint in it;
• the sleeve is tearing at the holes, so the page sags.

Take pages and photos out carefully. If a photo is stuck, don't pull: that's a job for a quiet afternoon and an approach of its own. Slide whatever comes loose into new polypropylene or polyester sleeves. Throw the old sleeves away, or at most use them for stamps or materials that aren't photos.

If you're rearranging everything anyway, it's also a good moment to scan your pages. Then you'll still have them if a sleeve ever lets you down.