PVC | MARKETS
The VinylPlus initiative has overseen the build-up of PVC recycling in Europe for many years, leading to similar schemes being established in other countries and regions. Peter Mapleston reports on their progress
PVC recycling on the rise around the world
Recycling rates for PVC recovered from end-of-life industrial and consumer applications continues to rise, even in times of Covid. Growing interest in environmental issues is putting pressure on the construction sector to move towards a circular economy with greater emphasis on the sustainable recovery of waste materials. In the construction sector, what happens to many products at end-of- life is typically not considered due to their longer lifespans and the need for them to meet strict technical performance criteria. But sooner or later, the issue of recycling needs to be addressed. Fortunately, this is happening, all around the world. VinylPlus, the European PVC industry’s commit- ment to sustainable development, says that over the past 20 years, many advances have been made in PVC recycling, with the set-up of collection and recycling schemes that were virtually non-existent at the beginning of the century. “In 2020, and despite the Covid-19 pandemic, VinylPlus still
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
achieved a great result, reaching more than 730,000 tonnes of PVC recycled and re-used into new products,” it says. There are currently more than 100 operations in Europe which recycle PVC pipes, profiles, flooring, coated fabrics and membranes. ESWA, the European Single-ply Waterproofing
Association, has been recycling PVC in Europe for over 20 years. A formal programme called Roofcol- lect recovered 16,500 tonnes of roofing and waterproofing membranes for recycling in 2018. VinylPlus established Recovinyl, a platform of
recyclers and converters to facilitate PVC waste collection and recycling, close to 20 years ago. “Through these efforts, 6.5m tonnes of PVC have been recycled into new products [through 2020], preventing the release of nearly 13m tonnes of CO2
into the atmosphere,” it says. In 2020,
recycled material represented about 27.5% of the estimated PVC available waste in the EU-27 plus
January/February 2022 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 17
Main image: End-of-life PVC windows provide a waste stream for PVC recycling
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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