To clarify any confusion over the amount of PVC recycling being reported in Germany, Vinyl 2010 (the Brussels-based organisation representing the Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry), and AgPU (the Working Group PVC and Environment, Bonn), are issuing the following statement:

The total volumes of PVC waste being recycled in Germany can be divided into three broad types of material:

• Post-industrial PVC waste (off cuts etc from the production of articles)
• Regulated post-consumer PVC waste (from the automotive, E&E and packaging sectors, for which waste collection and   treatment are covered by EU Directives)
• Non-regulated post-consumer PVC waste (all other PVC products at end-of-life)

To stimulate the recycling of the last and most challenging of these waste fractions, the European PVC industry committed in 2000, as part of its Vinyl 2010 Voluntary Commitment, to develop programmes and schemes to achieve the recycling of  200,000 tonnes of non-regulated post-consumer PVC waste in 2010 (in addition to any volumes already being recycled at 2000).  A European non profit association was set up (Recovinyl) to manage the programmes and to ensure factual measurements and verification through external independent auditing (KPMG).   It is upon these measurements that the non-regulated post-consumer PVC waste recycling statistics are published by Vinyl 2010 in its annual Progress Reports. The published audited figure for non-regulated post-consumer PVC recycling being registered through the Recovinyl system in Germany in 2007 was some 36,000 tonnes. 
 

















A separate estimate of all PVC recycling in Germany made by Consultic (a Frankfurt based research consultancy), is based on a market sampling methodology rather than direct measurement.  Consultic's survey includes post-industrial PVC waste volumes and does not discriminate between post-consumer material that is being reprocessed from regulated and non-regulated post-consumer PVC waste.

Based on Consultic's survey the overall volume of PVC waste being mechanically recycled in Germany in 2007 was 221,000 tonnes.
Although there is no direct correlation at all between the Recovinyl registered volumes and the Consultic estimates, it must be assumed that the Consultic figure of 77,000 tonnes for post-consumer PVC waste includes the 36,000 tonnes of non-regulated post-consumer PVC waste announced by Recovinyl.

Vinyl 2010 and AgPU would also like to strongly refute misleading and inaccurate information from EUPVcycle in the same press release, regarding the effects of the incineration of waste containing PVC. 
Because of the long life of many PVC applications  such as pipes and window frames, the fraction of  PVC that may find its way into general waste is still currently extremely small (less than 1 % of the total).   Municipal incinerators are strictly controlled and regulated. PVC is only one of several contributors to the chlorine content of municipal waste, and hence

incinerators are designed to withstand acidic fumes. Organics waste (wood, food residues) are also significant contributors. Moreover, any acids formed in the residue are either recovered or neutralised to salts.  In addition, well-documented independent scientific studies have demonstrated that emissions of traces of dioxins result from the incineration of general waste whether PVC is present in the mix or not, and that emissions of dioxins in the atmosphere have dramatically fallen over the last decades whilst the amount of PVC produced has raised significantly.

For further information please contact:
Chris Welton (Communication & Public Affairs Manager, Vinyl 2010)  +32 2 676 7443
Werner Preusker (Geschäftsführer / Managing director, AgPU)  + 49 228 917 83-0

Notes for editors
Vinyl 2010 is a Brussels based no-profit organisation set up to provide the organisational and financial infrastructure to manage and monitor the actions undertaken as part of the Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry chain.

The Voluntary Commitment is a 10-year plan to progress the PVC industry toward sustainability on many fronts: by improving production processes and products, investing in technology, minimising emissions and waste and boosting collection and recycling of PVC products at end-of-life.

Vinyl 2010 was established in 2000 by the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM), the European Plastics Converters (EuPC), the European Stabiliser Producers Association (ESPA) and the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI).
Vinyl 2010 is a Partnership registered with the Secretariat of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

AgPU, Arbeitsgemeinschaft PVC und Umwelt, is a trade association founded in 1988 to promote solutions to environmental issues around PVC. Its members are companies from the PVC value chain from salt, production of PVC and additives to transformation and recycling.