Sustainable development means using raw materials wisely. This implies treating waste as a potentially valuable resource.

As part of the Voluntary Commitment, ‘the PVC industry supports an integrated waste management approach, which aims to maximise the efficient use of raw materials and to utilise the best end-of-life treatment option per waste stream'. This includes the mechanical and feedstock recycling options as well as energy recovery options.

Vinyl 2010's current objective is to recycle 200,000 tonnes of post-consumer PVC waste per year in Europe by the end of 2010, excluding waste streams already subject to other or more specific legislation (such as the European Directives on End-of-Life Vehicles, Packaging and Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment).

What is waste?

It is important to make a distinction between produced waste and ‘available collectable waste'. Available collectable waste equals the total quantity of end-of-life product, minus the quantity of product that is not available for collection (e. g. pipes staying the ground after decommissioning), minus the quantity of product not collectable for economic or technical reasons (e. g. products made of many different materials that are bound together, such as, electronic scrap).

Available collectable waste volumes for each application stream is calculated on the basis of studies, models, sales statistics and estimates from member associations and experts. Further scientific knowledge and the results of field research may therefore modify previous forecasts. For example, studies presented during the Plastic Pipes XII Congress demonstrated that PVC pipes may last longer than expected, improving their sustainability but reducing the volume of waste available. For this reason, Vinyl 2010 revises its data periodically to ensure that they are complete, transparent and accurate.

Recovinyl

With the aim of supporting and developing PVC waste collection and recycling schemes,  the Recovinyl organisation was set up in 2003 within the framework of the Vinyl 2010 programme. Recovinyl has progressively integrated the collection and recycling initiatives previously directly managed by the EuPC sectoral projects:

With the help of financial incentives from Vinyl 2010, the Recovinyl system aims to ensure the Voluntary Commitment recycling target in Europe is reached by 2010. In 2006 - one year after its operational start-up - Recovinyl switched from being a commercial venture to non-profit association status to strengthen its independence in the market.

Recovinyl facilitates the collection, sorting, dispatching and recycling of mixed PVC post-consumer waste, mainly from the building and construction sectors. Recovinyl does not collect or recycle itself, but utilises and motivates existing waste management organisations in the market.

Recovinyl also provides financial incentives to support the collection of PVC waste from the building and construction sector. Vinyl 2010 believes that the Recovinyl system can contribute to making PVC recycling a mainstream and market-driven activity.

Since its creation, Recovinyl has made a major contribution to realising the exponential growth of the registered volumes of post-consumer PVC being recycled in Europe, starting from 14,000 tonnes in 2005 to 191,393 tonnes (of which 106,447 of rigid PVC and 84,946 of flexible PVC) in 2008.

Today, Recovinyl activity covers Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and the UK, with 107 active recyclers listed.

A dedicated website - www.recovinyl.com  - has been created to facilitate Recovinyl's activities and to provide tools for registering waste volumes online. Its contents - including the Recovinyl contracts and recovery & recycling guidelines - are now available in 11 languages.