VinylPlus (Brussels / Belgium; www.vinylplus.eu), the European PVC industry’s voluntary sustainability initiative, has announced that 739,525 t of PVC were recycled in 2018. This is an increase of 15.6% on volumes in 2017. The data were published in VinylPlus’ latest progress report.

Brigitte Dero, general manager of VinylPlus, said this was a record high and represented 92.4% of VinylPlus’ 2020 target. Recovinyl (Brussels / Belgium; www.recovinyl.com) remained the primary contributor, registering 734,568 t of recycled PVC. Cumulatively, almost 5m t of PVC has been recycled since 2000. “VinylPlus continues to be a frontrunner for the circular economy,” Dero said. “Through our voluntary commitment, we are making continuous progress towards our sustainability goals amid the development of EU policies impacting the plastics sector.”

The association presented the results at its annual conference “VinylPlus Sustainability Forum”, which was held on 9-10 May in Prague / Czech Republic – see Plasteurope.com of 14.03.2019. The event attracted more than 170 delegates from 32 countries who gathered to hear presentations and discuss the three pillars of sustainability – economic, social and environmental – and innovation in the industry.

In his welcome speech, VinylPlus chairman Stefan Sommer said the association’s success was down to the commitment of the entire PVC value chain. “To achieve further success, we will need to intensify cooperation with our partners and may need to identify new ones,” he said. Sommer also emphasised that a “balanced and harmonised legislative framework” for recycling plastics was essential to achieve its new recycling target of at least 900,000 t of PVC by 2025 – see Plasteurope.com of 01.10.2018.

At the forum, another four profile manufacturers were awarded the VinylPlus product label. These were Deceuninck (Hooglede-Gits / Belgium; www.deceuninck.com), Finstral (Ritten / Italy; www.finstral.com), Internorm (Traun / Austria; www.internorm.com) and Salamander Industrie Produkte (Türkheim / Germany; www.sip-windows.com). The VinylPlus product label is a sustainability labelling scheme for PVC products used in the building and construction sector – see Plasteurope.com of 21.11.2018. VinylPlus said to date, it has awarded its label to eight profile manufacturers for 43 profile systems manufactured at 13 European sites across 11 countries.