VinylPlus – the ten-year voluntary commitment to develop more environmentally responsible methods to produce, use and recycle PVC to which ADFlex is also a member – has announced that it has recycled 810,000 tons of PVC in Europe, equal to almost 27% of the waste generated. A great success for the first year of the third ten-year voluntary program, considering that, in 2020, due to the Covid19 pandemic, the goal had been missed.
This is not the only result reported by the VinylPlus annual report: in compliance with the slogan “Embracing EU Green Deal Ambitions”, in fact, the program has concretely addressed the prospects and scenarios generated by the current EU political landscape, as well as their impact on the plastics and PVC industry (spoiler: given the recent changes, the challenges will be severe).
“With our Commitment to 2030 – said the CEO of VP, Brigitte Dero – we intend to contribute to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with particular attention to sustainable consumption and production, climate change and partnerships” .
VinylPlus programs
The 10-year VP 2030 program – launched between 2020 and 2021 – is divided into three paths:
- Increase the circularity of the PVC supply chain
- Progress towards carbon neutrality and minimize the environmental footprint of those who produce
- Building global alliances and partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals
In terms of circularity, it is very important to guarantee the correct traceability of waste: to this end, Recovinyl launched last year RecoTrace, a tool for collecting data on the recycling of plastics, which in February was officially recognized by the CPA as a source of data to monitor the progress of the European supply chain.
Other initiatives that may affect ADFlex:
- Additive Sustainability Footprint (ASF), methodology developed as a voluntary approach at European level to evaluate and promote the production and sustainable use of additives in PVC products
- VinylPlus Product Label, the first certification scheme dedicated to plastic products for building and construction.
The result obtained by VinylPlus may perhaps seem not very concrete, but a broader look could perhaps help: since 2000, thanks to these projects, almost 7.3 million tons of PVC have been recycled, transformed into new products put back on the market. With a saving of over 14.5 million tons of CO2, not released into the atmosphere.
