PVC RECYCLING | MATERIALS
Vinyl destination: progress continues in PVC recycling
While European recycling of PVC stalled last year, the industry is still confident that future targets to recycle the material – including 1m tonnes/year by 2030 – will be met
Recycling of PVC continues to rise – through a combination of government legislation and the willingness of extrusion companies to include more recyclate in their products. However, recycling rates in Europe – which leads the way in such legislation – remained relatively static at around 27% in 2022, according to Vinyl- Plus, the industry scheme that oversees European PVC recycling. For the year as a whole, VinylPlus reported that 813,266 tonnes of PVC waste were recycled and used in new products in the EU-27 – plus Norway, Switzerland and the UK. This compares with a total of 810,775 tonnes recycled in 2021 – representing a rise of around 0.3%. Of this, 62% was pre-consumer waste – where factories reprocess their own waste internally – and 38% post-consumer waste (where PVC is collected
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after use). In 2022, the amount of pre-consumer recycling fell by around 1.5%, while post-consumer recycling rose by nearly 3.5%. Recycling of rigid PVC appeared to increase in
2022. For profiles, recycling rose about 15% – from around 355,000 tonnes in 2021 to 408,000 tonnes in 2022. For pipes and fittings, it rose by 12% (from around 44,000 tonnes in 2021 to nearly 50,000 tonnes in 2022). VinylPlus said that demand for recycled PVC
(rPVC) remained high until the third quarter of 2022, in a competitive market.
“Despite government incentives supporting the building and construction sector, a slight decrease in market demand was registered in the last quarter of 2022, possibly also due to extremely high energy costs,” said VinylPlus in its progress report for the year.
Main image: Recycling of PVC profiles in Europe rose by 15% in 2022
� July/August 2023 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 23
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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