A total of 474,411 tonnes of waste PVC was recycled through Recovinyl network last year, comprising 160 companies across 16 European member countries.
Waste PVC-U profiles comprised just over half of the UK’s recycling achievement in 2014, with pipes, rigid and flexible PVC films and cables making up the rest.
Potential new recycling opportunities for PVC include non-infectious medical PVC waste from hospitals, such as IV Fluid and oxygen bags. This type of waste is the focus of a VinylPlus-funded research project, RecoMed, undertaken jointly by Axion Consulting and the BPF Vinyls Group.
Recovinyl is an operational arm of VinylPlus, the ten-year Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry, which is tackling the sustainability challenges for PVC and delivery of current recycling targets to 2020.
One of the objectives of the VinylPlus Voluntary Commitment is to recycle 800,000 tonnes of PVC waste per year by 2020, including 100,000 tonnes of difficult-to-recycle PVC through innovative recycling technologies.
Jane Gardner, project manager of Axion Consulting, Recovinyl’s UK agents, said: “PVC recycling continues to grow, as revealed by these latest figures, and the UK’s achievement is testament to both ongoing commitment from the sector and sustained investment in recycling infrastructure across the country.”
Origen: PVC recycling rates grow across Europe – Waste Management World