5-7 OCTOBERISFR2011

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TOLEDO (SPAIN)VINYL PLUS, THE NEW EUROPEAN PVC INDUSTRY’S VOLUNTARY PROGRAMMETOWARD SUSTAINABILITY
Arjen Sevenster
European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers
Avenue E. van Nieuwenhuyse 4 (box 4), 1160 Brussels, Belgium
e-mail: arjen.sevenster@plasticseurope.org

Abstract
Over the past ten years, the Vinyl 2010 programme has been highly effective in assisting the European PVC industry tackling
various stakeholder concerns related to PVC sustainability. The Vinyl 2010 partners decided in 2009 to launch a follow-up
programme.
Vinyl 2010’s success was to a large extent due to the close cooperation of the entire value chain and to clear targets anddeadlines allowing transparent progress monitoring. These key features will be retained. Climate change and availability of
non-renewable resources are now widely recognised as major challenges. Health and safety concerns about chemical
substances are increasingly prevalent.
In this context, a fundamental assessment of the sustainability features of PVC as material and as industry was carried out.
An in-depth reflection involving scores of business managers and industry experts, stakeholders and NGOs took place during
almost two years, producing collective insights and a credible pathway for progress over the next ten years. Both thereflection process and its results are described, with particular emphasis on recycling.

Keywords: PVC, vinyl, sustainability, voluntary commitment, recycling.

1. Introduction
Vinyl 2010, the voluntary commitment of the PVC
industry signed in 2000 by associations representing theentire value chain, has been highly successful in helping
the European PVC industry tackling many stakeholder
concerns about PVC sustainability [1]. Despite difficult
market conditions, it reached almost all its targets. It
ensured that recycling of post-consumer PVC waste
increased by more than 200 kt/year. It is the example of a
successful industry commitment.
The programme that will follow, dubbed VinylPlus, willaddress all key aspects of sustainability, striving for aposition where PVC is seen as a significant enabler ofsustainability progress globally over the coming decade,while building on the achievements of Vinyl 2010.

2. Process toprogramme

determinethenewA fundamental assessment of the sustainability aspectsof PVC as material and as industry was needed, before
outlining the features of any follow-up of Vinyl 2010. This
assessment started in 2009 and resulted early on in a
broad agreement that the PVC industry would pursue its
efforts, building on Vinyl 2010’s achievements, learningfrom the issues encountered, while taking into accountthe situation in 2010 and in the foreseeable future.
Vinyl 2010’s success rested to a large extent on the close
cooperation of the entire value chain and on clear,verifiable targets and deadlines allowing transparent

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monitoring. It was also decided early on that these key
features would be retained, that the deadline for the new
set of targets would be 2020 and that the European
industry would not await potential global commitments,
while ensuring that its approach could become one of thebasic elements of a potential global long term
sustainability drive. Last but not least recycling wouldremain the favoured waste management option for PVC.
TNS (The Natural Step) is a non-profit organisation
founded with the vision of a sustainable society [2]. Its
mission is to provide decision makers across the globewith a unifying framework for Strategic Sustainable
Development. TNS has been dealing with PVC for morethan 10 years. It facilitated a UK multi-stakeholder study in2000 which is still seen today as having set thesustainability benchmark for PVC. This vision was framed
into five dimensions, derived from The Natural Step
System Conditions, which remain a good and workable
way of organising and understanding the challenges thathave to be met along the path to sustainable use andmanagement of PVC.
Vinyl 2010 decided therefore to involve TNS in thedevelopment of the new programme. The TNS
methodology provides a valuable structure to determine
where to concentrate efforts in order to achievesustainability progress in an effective and holistic way.
Moreover, TNS’s experience in involving external
stakeholders in the thought process was a major asset.
In order to achieve the vision, the industry has to tackle
five major sustainability challenges, identified through26/9/11 13:13:23

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6th International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Polymeric Materials

using the science-based sustainability principles of The
Natural Step Framework. The challenges cover all
aspects of the production, use and management of PVC
including alternative raw materials and additives:
1. Controlled-loop management of PVC:
Economic plan and technology roadmap,
increasing the quality, acceptability and use ofrecyclate, multiplying the accessibility ofrecycling infrastructure
2. Sustainable energy and climate stability:
Striving for carbon neutrality, investigating how
PVC can contribute to a low carbon society,promoting best practice energy use andinvestigating alternatives to fossil carbon rawmaterials
3. Organo-chlorine emissions to be minimised
world-wide, by responsible handling of PVC
waste across the globe
4. Sustainable additives: Prevent systematic
accumulation of man-made substances, ensure
additives allow controlled loop management
5. Sustainability awareness across the value
chain. Develop a way of telling the difference
between PVC made according to bestsustainability practices and other methods,
spread best practices and good examples
world-wide, continuous engagement of a wide
set of stakeholders
Three industry workshops were held in May 2010. There
was a broad agreement on voluntary action, continuousimprovement, collaboration, transparency, scientificrigour and research, dialogue with external stakeholders
in a positive, listening and learning frame of mind and,last but not least, seeking business prosperity.
Businesses involved in the production and sales of PVC
must be making an acceptable return on investment, andremain competitive at the same time as seeking the routeto sustainable development.
TNS then carried out between September 2010 andJanuary 2011 an extensive consultation of external
stakeholders to achieve engagement and get reactions interms of expectations, ideas and concerns. The outcomeof the consultation, and the ensuing recommendations
from TNS, were an essential addition to the results of theindustry workshops. TNS committed to the participatingexternal stakeholders that it would follow up with them induring the second half of 2011. This will expose the PVC
industry to external scrutiny and potential criticism, but isconsidered essential to ensure transparency.

standards for recyclate, enhancing the attractiveness ofsuch products for the specifiers and/or end consumers,
and boosting the sustainability credentials of the actively
involved companies. The Recovinyl scheme, which has
been instrumental in achieving the Vinyl 2010 recyclingtarget, will be re-focused to support this shift.
The scope of recycling will be extended to sectors Vinyl
2010 did not cover, i.e. packaging, automotive and E&E
waste. In addition to post-consumer waste, recycling ofwaste generated during production processes will also beencouraged insofar as the waste cannot be recycled
directly in the same process and hence recycling might
not happen without some kind of support. The overall
objective will be to divert as much as possible PVC wastefrom landfill. As was the case in Vinyl 2010, the amounts
recycled will be tracked year after year
In parallel, the development of techniques providing aviable and cost efficient way to treat some difficult types
of waste (i.e. mixed, composite or contaminated waste),will be evaluated and their implementation will besupported, with the objective to bring a significant
contribution to the overall recycling target. Feedstock
recycling had received extensive attention in the firstyears of Vinyl 2010, but mechanical recycling proved
sufficient to reach the 2010 target. It will be consideredagain as a potential solution for “difficult waste”, but
economic feasibility will be a major selection criterion.

4. Conclusion
The key principles of the new VinylPlus programme aredecided. The new and ambitious recycling target isdecided. There can be no doubt about the commitmentof the European PVC industry to pursue its efforts on thearduous journey towards sustainability, and controlled
loop recycling will remain a prominent part of this effort.

References[1] www.vinyl2010.org[2] www.thenaturalstep.org

3. Outline of the new programme withrespect to recycling
Further development of PVC waste recycling will be akey element to address challenges 1 and 2. Industry set
itself an ambitious target of controlled loop recycling by
2020. It will be helped by developing a “pull market”
strategy, i.e. stimulating converters to use more recyclate
in their products. This will be achieved by setting quality

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