RECYCLING | PVC
Above: Waste collection is a key part of industry efforts to increase PVC window profile recycling
said: “2023 was a very demanding year for Vinyl- Plus, as the PVC industry continued to face unprec- edented regulatory and macroeconomic challeng- es. However, even in a year characterised by extreme uncertainty, our commitment did not waver – as it never has. Our industry can tackle demanding challenges thanks to hard work and close co-operation among our founding members and partner companies, as well as among PVC sectoral and national associations.” Recovinyl, a platform of European recyclers and
converters created in 2003 by VinylPlus to facilitate PVC waste collection and recycling by monitoring, verifying and reporting on European PVC recycling and the use of recycled PVC in Europe, played a leading role in the 2021 founding of PolyREC, an organisation that brings together major players across the value chain as a multi-polymer data collection platform to monitor, verify and report on plastics recycling and uptake data in Europe. PolyREC utilises the RecoTrace common data collection system originally developed for PVC, which has now been extended for use with all main polymers. PolyREC looks to help the European plastics industry fulfil its commitment to use 10m tonnes of recycled plastics in new products by 2025.
Window to the world The EPPA (European Trade Association of PVC Window System Suppliers) continued its efforts to boost the recycling of post-consumer window profiles. Its European recycling strategy is imple- mented in a five-year action plan entitled “vision for 2025”, which has a primary goal to recycle 420,000 tonnes of PVC from windows by end of 2025, by improving the collection of old windows and establishing a controlled loop for PVC profiles, in which rPVC is used in construction applications, or in a closed loop, where recycled PVC windows are incorporated into new PVC windows.
30 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | January/February 2025
The association said old double-glazed and triple-glazed PVC windows can be fully recycled by re-introducing the rPVC into the core of new PVC windows. “Today, the [European] PVC uses around 50% of its own recyclate,” EPPA said. According to the VinylPlus Progress Report 391,093 tonnes of PVC profiles were recycled in 2023 with 182,672 tonnes rPVC used in new windows and profiles. The EPPA’s activities eye the markets of France and Germany as a focus with continuing efforts in Poland and the UK. In France, the EPPA has partnered with that country’s UFME association of doors and windows manufacturers to actively promote recycling in the window sector. UFME developed the FERVAM label and brand which highlights a value chain company’s use of best practices in the recycling of windows. More than one hundred companies are signatories to UFME’s FERVAM label, UFME said. UFME’s commitment in Valobat, a collective
initiative in the construction products and materials sector in France, is a way the association supports the doors and windows sector in waste manage- ment, with rPVC volumes generated and used there reported by all FERVAM signatories using EPPA’s RecoTrace system. Also in France, an Extended Producer Responsi- bility (EPR) scheme for building and construction project which began 1 January 2022 advanced in 2023 following the implementation of the French EPR by two national associations in charge of flexible PVC (Kaléi) and rigid PVC (SNEP) in building applications. The French EPR scheme, actively followed by
VinylPlus France, aims to organise the collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of building and construction products at a national scale under the umbrella of Producer Responsibility Organisation (PROs), which Kaléi and SNEP have joined. In Germany, Rewindo Window Recycling
Service, the recycling initiative for PVC window profiles, roller shutters and related products in the country, reported that 136,000 tonnes of PVC was recycled in 2023, of which 43,000 tonnes were derived from post-consumer sources and 93,000 tonnes from pre-consumer production and manufacturing processes of the PVC-U window industry and window makers. The recycled volume amounts to a recycling rate of 86%, according to Michael Vetter, Managing Director. Use of the 136,000 tonnes of recycled PVC
instead of new PVC equates to almost 2 million MWh energy savings potential and approximately 272,000 tonnes in CO2
savings, Vetter said. The figure for recycled PVC in Germany was
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: VEKA
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