VinylPlus, the European PVC industry’s voluntary commitment to sustainable development, has announced record levels of recycling. Figures of nearly 740,000 tonnes of recycled PVC have been verified for 2018, an increase of 15.6% from 2017. The industry is now 92.4% of the way towards its 2020 target and has recycled nearly 5 million tonnes of PVC since 2000.
This is a great achievement and just one of many reported in the 2018 VinylPlus Progress Report, launched at the VinylPlus Sustainability Forum in Prague, May 9-10th this year. The Forum attracted more than 170 participants from 32 countries, including representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament, the Czech Ministry of Environment, the United Nations, NGOs, academia, specifiers, designers, recyclers and the PVC value chain.
This year’s Forum was dedicated to the theme “accelerating innovation”, reflecting on the success of the voluntary commitment in uniting the entire value chain around common objectives for sustainability. The Natural Step’s Senior Advisor Richard Blume was a speaker at the Forum and spoke about initiatives and lessons learned in helping the industry embed sustainability thinking over the last 20 years.
The Forum also provided an opportunity for the industry to discuss potential next steps and expectations in light of the growing sense of urgency to address sustainability challenges. Important perspectives from the United Nations (UN), the Club of Rome, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) emphasized the need for better business sustainability reporting, a new mindset to address global challenges and the potential to set higher performance standards through certification.
Four PVC window profile manufacturers were awarded the VinylPlus product label during the Forum, showing a gain in traction within the building sector and growing interest in differentiating products based on sustainability performance. To date, eight profile manufacturers have been awarded the product label for 43 profile systems manufactured in 13 European sites across 11 countries.
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The VinylPlus annual report is available on the VinylPlus website.
More about the VinylPlus product label
The Natural Step has been advising VinylPlus on progress since 2011 and our commentary is included in the report.
More about our overall efforts to help the industry accelerate progress toward sustainability is found here.
Inquiries about The Natural Step’s work regarding the chemical sector and chemical management can be directed to our Chemicals Coalition Team.