UK’s tops 100,000 tonnes recycling
10th May 2016

The UK recycled a record-breaking 107,593 tonnes of PVC through the industry’s Recovinyl scheme last year – 13% up on 2014 and representing more than a fifth of the production of the scheme’s 16 European member companies.

The figure, following last week’s announcement of the European achievement is the equivalent of more than 4.3million windows.

The UK’s record-breaking Recovinyl performance contributed 21% - or 107,593 tonnes – to the total recycled through the PVC industry’s recycling scheme in 2015.

It’s an increase of 13% compared to the previous year (2014: 95,525) and represents the equivalent of nearly 4.3 million PVC-U windows or 426,662 houses (assuming each house has 10 windows). That’s enough to glaze all the homes in Birmingham.

Recovinyl is an operational arm of VinylPlus, the European PVC industry sustainable development programme, which is tackling the sustainability challenges for PVC and delivery of current recycling targets to 2020.

Waste PVC-U profiles (61,866 tonnes) comprised more than half of the UK’s recycling achievement in 2015, with pipes, rigid and flexible PVC films and cables making up the rest.

“The recycling of PVC continues to grow in line with continued investment in recycling infrastructure throughout the country and robust commitment from the sector. It’s a remarkable achievement that demonstrates the sustainability of this readily-recyclable material,” said Project Manager Jane Gardner of Axion Consulting, Recovinyl’s UK agents.

Growing demand from manufacturers for good quality recycled material is a key factor behind the recycling success. PVC can be recycled up to seven times without any loss of performance and can be reused in many diverse new products, from construction products such as windows, to flooring and electrical components – or even goalposts.

One of the objectives of the VinylPlus Voluntary Commitment is to recycle 800,000 tonnes of PVC waste per year by 2020, including 100,000 tonnes of difficult-to-recycle PVC through innovative recycling technologies.

www.recovinyl.com