PVC recycling in Australia

PVC recycling in Australia - Product Stewardship

PVC is a thermoplastic, which means it becomes plastic, or softens, on heating and hardens on cooling. It is therefore relatively easy to recycle the material. Factory waste recovery and recycling is very high in the industry as this clean waste can be reprocessed in-house for most applications.

Recycling post-consumer waste materials, however, can be more complex because of:

Contamination by other materials
Hygiene, health and safety issues
Collection infrastructure being accessible
Dispersion of product rather than concentrations of available waste near collection and recycling infrastructure.

Nevertheless, there has been recycling of PVC products in Australia for many years such as cable insulation and sheathing, and packaging. PVC bottles are collected from kerbsides by most Councils in Australia for reprocessing into new products under the Vinyl Cycle program.

The Vinyl Council, through the industry's Product Stewardship Program and the Vinyl-2-Life Action plan , has fostered the development of infrastructure and programs to recover and recycle PVC pipes, profiles and general medical waste.