PVC recycling forecast: 600 000 tonnes to be recycled by VinylPlus this year

The Netherlands – ‘We managed to recycle 514 913 tonnes of PVC in Europe in 2015. This year, I expect this will grow to approximately 600 000 tonnes,’ said Stefan Eingärtner of VinylPlus at the annual Plastics Recyclers Europe conference in Amsterdam.

‘For 2017, this means we will recycle 30 000 trucks full of PVC, which equals 6 full container ships,’ noted Eingärtner, deputy general manager of the European sustainable development programme VinylPlus. ‘This illustrates perfectly what the European PVC recycling sector has achieved these last two decades; recycled PVC has become an important building block of our society,’ he added.

The majority, namely 70%, of recycled PVC is used in the construction and demolition industry. ‘It is obviously a very long-lasting material,’ Eingärtner told delegates. VinylPlus has an annual budget of more than EUR 5 million, provided by its member companies. This enables the recycling programme to run 35 different waste management projects this year.

‘To ensure investments in the sector, we must deal with the threat of legacy additives,’ Eingärtner declared. ‘Alarm bells are going off,’ he said. ‘People need clear information. I’m confident that working together on R&D projects will help phase out these additives.’

A more detailed review of the PRE conference will be included in our upcoming Plastics Special. For more information about its content, contact the RI team!