NEWS
Plastipak’s rPET plan
About 730,000 tonnes of PVC in the EU was recycled in 2020 as part of the VinylPlus programme
Covid pandemic limits VinylPlus PVC recycling
The impact of Covid-19 on recycling activities in the EU is shown in the latest figures from the long-running VinylPlus PVC industry programme. The amount of PVC
recycled and re-used into new products was about 730,000 tonnes in 2020, said VinylPlus in its annual progress report. This was a decline from the 771,313 tonnes reported by the programme for 2019. VinylPlus said it “still achieved a great result” considering the challenges that Covid-19 presented for the EU PVC industry last year. The 730,000 tonnes figure was above 91% of the
programme’s 2020 target. “Looking ahead, VinylPlus confirms its strong engage- ment and commitments to recycle 900,000 tonnes of PVC per year by 2025, in line with the ambitions of the Circular Plastics Alliance, and 1m tonnes by 2030,” said VinylPlus. Two ten-year pro-
grammes have now been completed which resulted in 6.5m tonnes of PVC being recycled since 2000. Since the start of the first pro- gramme (called Vinyls2010), VinylPlus had seen year-on- year increases in PVC recycling and it said it “was well on track to meet its recycling target of 800,000
tonnes per year by 2020 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic”. Brigitte Dero, Managing
Director of VinylPlus, said: “Looking back, we have achieved a lot. However, there is still much more to do, especially if we intend to proactively contribute to the UN Sustainable Develop- ment Goals. We now move forward to the next stage of our commitment to sustain- able development.” The official launch of the
VinylPlus 2030 commitment will happen at its Sustain- ability Forum, a live and online event which takes place on 17 June. �
www.vinylplus.eu
in Spain Rigid packaging group Plastipak has announced a recycling investment at its manufacturing site in Toledo, Spain. The unit will be able to convert rPET flake into food-grade rPET pellets suitable for direct use in new preforms, bottles and containers produced at the site. The new recycling plant will produce 20,000 tonnes per year of food-grade rPET pellets when it starts production, which is expected to be in the summer of 2022. When completed, this will be Plastipak’s fifth rPET production plant in its global operations. Plastipak – which claims to be the largest produc- er of food-grade rPET in Europe – has rPET plants in France, Luxembourg and the UK, and currently produces more than 130,000 tonnes of rPET each year in Europe. Plastipak, based in Plymouth, Michigan, also has an HDPE and PET recycling facility in the US. �
www.plastipak.com
Rehau UK opens new PVC recycling facility
Window manufacturer Rehau has invested £10m in a state-of-the-art PVC recycling facility in the UK as part of a larger investment programme. Rehau UK’s PVCR subsidiary has moved to a new purpose-built facility in Runcorn, which has monthly repro- cessing capacity of 1,000 tonnes of PVC windows and doors.
10 An investment of more than £60m in
recycling infrastructure has been made across the Rehau Group, including this new facility in the north of England. Rehau said that it expects the Runcorn facility to recycle 24,000 tonnes per year of PVC window frames by 2024. The group also aims to: work with more OEMs to optimise PVC recycling
PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | May/June 2021
and reduce energy consumption; improve its separation process to keep up with sustainability legislation and to minimise by-products; develop relation- ships with partners to most efficiently manage waste streams; and invest in consumer awareness campaigns to drive demand for recycled windows. �
www.pvcr.co.uk
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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