PVC RECYCLING
VinylPlus: European recycling exceeds 360,000 t in 2012 / On track to reach 800,000 t/y by 2020
The volume of PVC recycled in Europe reached a record 362,076 t last year, according to data provided by the European PVC industry sustainable development programme VinylPlus (www.vinylplus.eu). The programme, a ten-year voluntary commitment to sustainable development, said it is on track to meet its target of recycling 800,000 t/y by 2020.
VinylPlus chairman Filipe Constant said the industry “is effectively moving from a model of resource consumption that follows a ‘take-make-use-throw away' linear pattern into a truly circular economy model, which puts end-of-life materials back into the production stream.” He was speaking at the “Vinyl Sustainability Forum 2013” in Istanbul / Turkey in April. The scope for what constitutes recycled PVC has been widened to include post-consumer and limited types of post-industrial PVC as well as some of the regulated waste streams in the EU. For 2011, VinylPlus reported the recycling of 257,084 t of PVC.
An evaluation of new technologies for recycling difficult-to-treat PVC waste is continuing and efforts are being made to address the ‘legacy additives’ issue relating to the presence of restricted chemicals in recycled PVC. VinylPlus registered a 76% drop in lead stabiliser consumption in the EU-27 compared with 2007 levels and said it is on track to complete the substitution by the end of 2015. The replacement of DEHP by high molecular-weight phthalates and/or other plasticisers is ongoing, it added.
Several taskforces have been established to study how to incorporate renewable energy and raw materials, the sustainable use of additives and the environmental footprint of PVC production. A VinylPlus product label concept for PVC products has been developed in collaboration with The Natural Step (www.naturalstep.org), an NGO providing guidance to the VinylPlus programme, and UK certification body BRE (www.bre.co.uk).
“It is quite impressive to see such a dynamic value-chain working together to make the entire industry and its products more sustainable,” commented Reha Gür, vice president of the Turkish plastics manufacturers association PAGDER (Istanbul; www.pagder.org).
Also speaking at the forum in Istanbul, Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen, senior advisor at the United Nations Office for Partnerships, said: “VinylPlus has demonstrated success and we are keen to see how the European industry challenges itself to be more ambitious and concrete in addressing identified challenges. Industry has a critical role to play in accelerating change, greening the economy and driving sustainable progress around the world."
e-Service:
VinylPlus Progress Report 2013 as a PDF document
VinylPlus chairman Filipe Constant said the industry “is effectively moving from a model of resource consumption that follows a ‘take-make-use-throw away' linear pattern into a truly circular economy model, which puts end-of-life materials back into the production stream.” He was speaking at the “Vinyl Sustainability Forum 2013” in Istanbul / Turkey in April. The scope for what constitutes recycled PVC has been widened to include post-consumer and limited types of post-industrial PVC as well as some of the regulated waste streams in the EU. For 2011, VinylPlus reported the recycling of 257,084 t of PVC.
An evaluation of new technologies for recycling difficult-to-treat PVC waste is continuing and efforts are being made to address the ‘legacy additives’ issue relating to the presence of restricted chemicals in recycled PVC. VinylPlus registered a 76% drop in lead stabiliser consumption in the EU-27 compared with 2007 levels and said it is on track to complete the substitution by the end of 2015. The replacement of DEHP by high molecular-weight phthalates and/or other plasticisers is ongoing, it added.
Several taskforces have been established to study how to incorporate renewable energy and raw materials, the sustainable use of additives and the environmental footprint of PVC production. A VinylPlus product label concept for PVC products has been developed in collaboration with The Natural Step (www.naturalstep.org), an NGO providing guidance to the VinylPlus programme, and UK certification body BRE (www.bre.co.uk).
“It is quite impressive to see such a dynamic value-chain working together to make the entire industry and its products more sustainable,” commented Reha Gür, vice president of the Turkish plastics manufacturers association PAGDER (Istanbul; www.pagder.org).
Also speaking at the forum in Istanbul, Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen, senior advisor at the United Nations Office for Partnerships, said: “VinylPlus has demonstrated success and we are keen to see how the European industry challenges itself to be more ambitious and concrete in addressing identified challenges. Industry has a critical role to play in accelerating change, greening the economy and driving sustainable progress around the world."
e-Service:
VinylPlus Progress Report 2013 as a PDF document
07.05.2013 Plasteurope.com [225252-0]
Published on 07.05.2013