VinylPlus (Brussels / Belgium; www.vinylplus.eu), the European PVC industry’s voluntary sustainability initiative, said it is currently developing a new 2030 sustainability programme, and the group discussed possible measures during its recent virtual “Vinyl Sustainability Forum” (VSF), which featured 180 participants from 24 countries. The annual conference was scheduled to run from 6 May to 7 May 2020 in Florence / Italy and was then postponed to 15 October 2020.

The conversation was said to have been built on external stakeholder research from consultant Accenture about key sustainability drivers and PVC industry challenges as well as opportunities in the decade ahead. Forum participants debated and provided views on the direction of the programme as well as on issues such as enhancing VinylPlus’ engagement with stakeholders and ensuring the long-term sustainability of PVC, according to the group.

“I am proud of the work done by VinylPlus and its partners to increase the sustainability performance and use of PVC,” MD Brigitte Dero said. “We are fully committed to being circular, working closely with the European Commission and actively contributing to the ‘Circular Plastics Alliance’.” This 2019 initiative, backed by public and private sector organisations, is working to raise the EU market for recycled plastics to 10m t by 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 23.09.2019). VinylPlus announced earlier this year that the amount of PVC recycled in 2019 rose at an annual rate of 4.3% to 771,313 t (see Plasteurope.com of 12.06.2020).

The group said the virtual event concluded with a ceremony to award VinylPlus product labels for sustainable PVC products. To date, more than 100 products made in Europe have received the label, which is granted to qualifying PVC building and construction products, the group added.