More than 6.5million tonnes of PVC has been recycled in Europe since the year 2000, preventing the release of nearly 13 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere – and created 1,500 direct jobs in recycling plants, Vinylplus has announced in its 2021 Progress Report.
Last year, despite the closures and restrictions of the pandemic, recyclers were able to achieve over 90% of their target for the year, with more than 730,000 tonnes produced for re-use into new products.
VinylPlus has also confirmed its commitment to recycle 900,000 tonnes of PVC per year by 2025, in line with the ambitions of the Circular Plastics Alliance, and one million tonnes by 2030.
The energy needed to produce one tonne of PVC resin decreased by an average of 9.5% between 2007-2008 and 2015-2016. In the same period, CO2 emissions were reduced by 14.4% for the average PVC production. For converters, across main applications such as window profiles, pipes, flooring and films, energy consumption decreased between 16% and 26.5% in 2020 compared to 2010.
“Looking back, we have achieved a lot,” said VinylPlus managing director Brigitte Dero, “However, there is still much more to do, especially if we intend to proactively contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We now move forward to the next stage of our commitment to sustainable development, exploiting 20+ years of lessons learned and achievements to build a new and even more ambitious commitment for the next decade so as to contribute further towards a more sustainable and circular future.”
