Vinyl goes on the record to back recycling fund

The Australian Government’s commitment to a multi-million-dollar fund to support innovative investment in recycling infrastructure has won the backing of the PVC sector.

The Vinyl Council of Australia agrees the commitment of A$ 190 million (EUR 116 million) into a Recycling Modernisation Fund should drive ‘a billion-dollar transformation’ of Australia’s waste and recycling capacity.

‘We believe this funding is much needed, well targeted and an excellent opportunity to refine the current systems,’ says Sophi MacMillan, ceo of the Vinyl Council of Australia. ‘Australia lags Europe and numerous other countries around the world in terms of sorting, recovery and recycling of mixed plastics and this fund has the potential to help bridge this gap.’

Vinyl/PVC is the third most commonly used type of plastic but lacks a developed collection, sorting, and processing infrastructure.

The Vinyl Council’s PVC Stewardship Programme commits participating companies to seek improvement in the environmental footprint of PVC products and help boost recycling practices in Australia. Signatories have committed to using recycled PVC in new products, as well as minimising production wastes and packaging waste sent to landfill.

Reporting indicates the amount of PVC being recycled by signatories grew for a third successive year in 2019 so that now it is more than double the amount used in 2016.

Tech fast track

‘Our PVC Circularity Taskforce brings together industry and government representatives to drive the industry’s circular economy objectives. Working with this forum and with the support of the Federal Government and interested state jurisdictions, we believe we can fast track new technologies that produce suitable clean and sorted PVC for remanufacture locally,’ MacMillan says.

‘Our members are committed to the circular economy, which has the opportunity to grow substantially if all levels of government harness their purchasing power to support those companies that are active participants in product stewardship schemes and are manufacturing recycled content products.’