Abstract Disposal of waste plastics imposes serious problems to the environmentalists, since plastics are non-biodegradable and emit carcinogenic gases when incinerated. In a country like India, where solar energy is abundantly available, semiconductor photo catalysis may be a clean and economic technology to combat such a problem. In the present work we addressed to the problem of degrading polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by photo catalysis by exposing a PVC–ZnO composite film to solar radiation as well as to artificial UV radiation in presence of water and air. Degradation in the two processes has been compared. The surface morphology as well as the FTIR spectroscopy of the irradiated film has been critically examined. The degradation was measured by weight loss data and was found to follow a pseudo-first order rate equation. The various parameters studied were loading of the semiconductor and intensity of UV radiation. A possible mechanism has been suggested and the corresponding rate equation has been modeled. The model has been validated by the experimental data.