[Logo] PolyOne
                                          N E W S       R E L E A S E


For Immediate Release


           POLYONE TO DIVEST INTEREST IN AUSTRALIAN VINYLS CORPORATION


CLEVELAND - January 11, 2002 - PolyOne Corporation (NYSE: POL), the world's
largest polymer services company, today announced the divestiture of its
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin and specialty products interest in its equity
joint venture, Australian Vinyls Corporation (AVC). PolyOne has a 37.4 percent
interest in AVC; the remaining portion is held by Orica Limited, which is also
divesting its resin and specialty products interest.

Acquiring the businesses is a team led by Murray Winstanley, a former managing
director of AVC. The operations being sold reported a loss in 2001. The
transaction is expected to be completed on February 15, 2002. An impairment
writedown of PolyOne's investment in AVC will be recognized in the fourth
quarter of 2001.

 AVC announced today the closing of its Altona, Victoria, Australia, PVC resin
plant, citing the facility's scale and age, which made it uncompetitive in the
current market environment. In third-quarter 2001, PolyOne reported a pre-tax
restructuring charge of $5.1 million that included the cost of closing the
Altona plant and the writedown of associated assets. The plant is not part of
the sale to the Winstanley group.

PolyOne (37.4 percent) and Orica (62.6 percent) will retain ownership of AVC's
PVC compounding assets, which include three production facilities in Greater
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. This joint venture will operate as Welvic
Australia Pty Ltd. Annual revenues for the compounding business are
approximately $20 million.

ABOUT POLYONE
PolyOne Corporation, with annual revenues approaching $3 billion, is an
international polymer services company with operations in thermoplastic
compounds, specialty vinyl resins, specialty polymer formulations, engineered
films, color and additive systems, elastomer compounding, and thermoplastic
resin distribution. Headquartered in Cleveland, PolyOne has more than 8,000
employees at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia,
and joint ventures in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Information on the Company's products and services can be found at
www.polyone.com.


PolyOne Investor & General Media Contact:   Dennis A. Cocco
                                            Chief Investor & Communications
                                            Officer
                                            216.589.4018
                                            dennis.cocco@polyone.com


PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
This release contains statements concerning trends and other forward-looking
information affecting or relating to PolyOne Corporation and its industries that
are intended to qualify for the protections afforded "forward-looking
statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual
results could differ materially from such statements for a variety of factors
including, but not limited to: (1) the risk that the former Geon and M.A. Hanna
businesses will not be integrated successfully; (2) an inability to achieve or
delays in achieving savings related to the consolidation and restructuring
programs; (3) unanticipated delays in achieving or inability to achieve cost
reduction and employee productivity goals; (4) costs related to the
consolidation of Geon and M.A. Hanna; (5) the effect on foreign operations of
currency fluctuations, tariffs, nationalization, exchange controls, limitations
on foreign investment in local businesses, and other political, economic and
regulatory risks; (6) unanticipated changes in world, regional or U.S. PVC or
other plastics consumption growth rates affecting the Company's markets; (7)
unanticipated changes in global industry capacity or in the rate at which
anticipated changes in industry capacity come online in the PVC, VCM,
chlor-alkali or other industries in which the Company participates; (8)
fluctuations in raw material prices and supply, and in particular fluctuations
outside the normal range of industry cycles; (9) unanticipated production
outages or material costs associated with scheduled or unscheduled maintenance
programs; (10) unanticipated costs or difficulties and delays related to the
operation of the joint venture entities; (11) lack of day-to-day operating
control, including procurement of raw material feedstocks, of the OxyVinyls
partnership; (12) lack of direct control over the reliability of DELIVERY and
quality of the primary raw materials utilized in the Company's products; (13)
partial control over investment decisions and dividend distribution policy of
the OxyVinyls partnership.




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