VinylPlus, the new European PVC industry’s voluntary programme toward sustainability

Abstract

Over the past 10 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, VinylPlus. Vinyl 2010’s success was to a large extent due to the close cooperation of the entire PVC value chain, and to clear targets and deadlines allowing transparent progress monitoring. These key features have been 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. It produced collective insights and a credible pathway for progress over the next 10 years. Both the reflection process and its results are described, with particular emphasis on recycling. The issue of “legacy additives”, a potential major hurdle of recycling, is given particular attention.