VinylPlus (Brussels; www.vinylplus.eu), the European PVC industry’s voluntary sustainable development programme, announced in its annual Progress Report that 810,775 t of PVC waste was recycled and reused into new products in 2021, up from 730,000 t in the prior year. The announcement was made at its 10th VinylPlus Sustainability Forum in May 2022.

The figure represents approximately 26.9% of the total PVC waste generated in 2021 by the EU27+CH, NO, UK. Overall, the European PVC value chain recycled close to 7.3 mn t of PVC into new products since 2000, which prevented the release of more than 14.5 mn t of CO₂ into the atmosphere, said Stefan Sommer, chair of VinylPlus.

PVC in flooring applications saw a considerable rise in post-consumer recycling in 2021, as it went from 1,560 t in 2020 to 2,162 t (EU27+CH, NO), while it decreased substantially for pipes and fittings, going from 27,863 t in 2020 to 10,254 t in 2021. Flexible PVC and films also saw a considerable jump, from 32,479 t in 2020 to 40,500 t in the previous year.

VinylPlus recently denounced a report from NGO Health Care Without Harm that recommended the elimination of PVC use in medical product applications, which stated PVC is the least recyclable of all plastics (see Plasteurope.com of 27.01.2022). VinylPlus Med was launched in Belgium in 2021 to advance circularity in the healthcare sector with the aim of recycling discarded single-use PVC medical devices through a partnership among hospitals, waste management companies, recyclers, and the PVC industry (see Plasteurope.com of 26.10.2021).

The organisation last year confirmed its commitment to reclaim 900,000 t of PVC by 2025 and 1 mn t/y by 2030. It aims to ensure proper traceability of PVC waste in line with the European Commission’s Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) principles by embracing Recovinyl’s RecoTrace recording and tracing scheme to monitor plastics recycling volumes and recycled plastics use (see Plasteurope.com of 25.02.2022). The scheme complies with the CPA’s monitoring requirements.

VinyPlus was founded by the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM, Brussels; www.pvc.org), the European Stabiliser Producers Association (ESPA, Brussels; www.stabilisers.eu), European Plasticisers (Brussels; www.europeanplasticisers.eu), and European Plastics Converters (EuPC, Brussels; www.plasticsconverters.eu).