VinylPlus (Brussels / Belgium; www.vinylplus.eu), the European PVC industry’s voluntary sustainability initiative, has launched VinylPlus 2030, a 10-year commitment by the sector to sustainable development. The plan was unveiled at the initiative’s Sustainability Forum 2021 in Brussels, which brought together more than 530 participants from 44 countries.

The programme for the PVC value chain defines three “pathways”: scaling up value chain circularity, advancing towards carbon neutrality and minimising environmental footprint, and building global coalitions and partnering for sustainable development goals (SDGs). The plan aims to contribute to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, with a focus on sustainable consumption and production, climate change and partnerships. It also seeks to align with some EU policies, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan and the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability under the European Green Deal.

VinylPlus says it plans to have at least 900,000 t/y and 1m t/y of rPVC in new products by 2025 and 2030, respectively. This is in line with the ambitions of the Circular Plastics Alliance, which aims to boost the EU market for recycled plastics to 10m t by 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 23.09.2019). In its 2020 progress report, VinylPlus announced that more than 730,000 t of PVC were recycled in 2020 after previously setting a target of 800,000 t/y (see Plasteurope.com of 07.06.2021).

At the event, MD Brigitte Dero said, “While we have much to be proud of, we know that these achievements are only milestones on the road to a sustainable future. Therefore, in order to build an even more ambitious programme, we worked alongside Accenture in 2020 for a three-month long open process of external consultation to gather input on key sustainability drivers, challenges and opportunities for the PVC industry to respond to in the next decade.”