The work aims to summarize new preparation methods and application of environmentally-friendly plasticizers to provide certain theoretical basis for the application of environmentally-friendly plasticizers in polyvinyl chloride. Different types of environmentally-friendly plasticizers were classified according to their chemical structure and function. The latest research of environmentally-friendly plasticizers at home and abroad was mainly introduced. Besides, the application of several environmentally-friendly plasticizers in PVC was introduced in detail, including epoxidized plasticizer, polyester plasticizer, citric acid ester plasticizers, trimellitic ester plasticizers, and cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid ester plasticizer. The main problems that need to be solved for environmentally-friendly plasticizers were revealed. On this basis, the development direction and industrial prospect of environmentally-friendly plasticizers were analyzed and predicted. Moreover, the findings suggested that polyvinyl chloride modified by environmentally-friendly plasticizers was comparable or superior to phthalate plasticizer in mechanical properties, heat resistance, processing performance and stability. Potentially harmful phthalate plasticizers can be replaced by environmentally-friendly plasticizers, which have great application prospects in polyvinyl chloride.