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As part of an industry commitment to consider whole-of-life management for its products, the Vinyl Council on behalf of the Product Stewardship Program commissioned a National PVC Waste Audit, which was completed in December 2005.
The audit, carried out by sustainability consultants NolanITU, is the most comprehensive study to date on the quantities of PVC waste currently generated in Australia. Data was obtained from importers and exporters, manufacturers, converters and recyclers.
Taking into consideration past and current market consumption and typical product lifespans, Nolan-ITU established current and future end-of-life PVC volumes and expected destinations; recycled, left in-situ, or landfilled.
The result was the identification of 20 suggested priorities for PVC recovery based on the amount of available end-of-life PVC, ease of recovery, current infrastructure, and technical issues in the recycling process.
The study found:
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The amount of end-of-life PVC product available for recovery (2004) was estimated at 158,300 tonnes; |
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Despite PVC being the second most commonly used plastic, it accounts for approximately 1 percent of the 16 million tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year in Australia; |
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End-of-life PVC (in 2004) is equivalent to 3.4% of the total quantity of PVC products still in use; |
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Despite PVC being the second most commonly used plastic, it accounts for approximately 1 percent of the 16 million tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year in Australia; |
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Current programs recycling bottles, flooring and pipe recycled 10,035 tonnes of PVC in 2004. The PVC is recycled into flooring, pipes and fittings, shoe soles, garden hose and car mud flaps. |
In order to decide recovery priorities, Nolan ITU considered a number of criteria including the quantity of available PVC, the proportion of additives in the product, the likelihood of contamination complicating the recovery process, current collection and reprocessing infrastructure, and market outlets for reprocessed materials.
They also considered the geographic disposal of the end-of-life products, for example, does the product exist in all households in the country, or only in specific industry sectors. The size of the products was also taken into consideration; the larger a product, the fewer required make recycling practical.
The 20 priority areas for increased PVC recovery cover the building and construction, automotive and packaging industries.
Priority areas for PVC recovery
The top five areas identified for recovery are:
| 1) |
Cable and wire (general construction) |
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| 2) |
Bottles |
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| 3) |
Agricultural pipe |
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| 4) |
Cable and wire insulation (electrical appliances) |
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| 5) |
Profiles for interior fitout (including conduit) |
The priorities do not necessarily reflect the expected annual available PVC. For example, it was identified that while cable has a lower volume of end-of-life available PVC compared to other PVC products such as flooring and building profiles, the existing infrastructure associated with the copper recovery industry means there is a greater likelihood of recovering it.
Vinyl-2-Life Action Plan
The Vinyl-2-Life Action Plan, released in April 2006, identifies the next steps the Vinyl Council will take to further increase the rate of PVC recycling in Australia.
It is a plan to enhance the recovery, reuse and recycling of PVC products at the end of their initial useful life. It is about giving PVC or vinyl products a second life.
The plan was developed based on key findings of the Nolan ITU report and industry’s current ability to influence the recovery strategy. The plan does not set out to tackle all PVC waste streams, but targets those with significant volume, available infrastructure, or particular sensitivities from the community’s perspective. Three key sectors have been identified: Construction, Packaging and Automotive.
The Vinyl-2-Life Action Plan has objectives for the following market segments within these key sectors:
| 1. |
Cables |
| 2. |
Pipes |
| 3. |
Profiles |
| 4. |
Floor Coverings |
| 5. |
Bottles |
| 6. |
Blister Packaging |
| 7. |
Automotive Products |
The first stage of the Action Plan includes:
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The development of a pilot project to test the feasibility of closed loop recycling of cable waste and to characterise technical and commercial barriers to improved recovery and recycling; |
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The extension of pipe recovery trials across building and demolition waste sites in NSW; |
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Investigation of blister packaging recovery as demand for this waste is high as it is usually readily reprocessable; |
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The development of a commitment to trial recovery of end-of-life flooring and installation off-cuts when fitting new vinyl floor coverings; |
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The extension of the NSW Collex pipe trial to include all uPVC (unplasticised PVC) construction and demolition waste including profiles. |
The Vinyl-2-Life Action Plan seeks to fill the gaps between end-of-life product and PVC recyclers. It will complement and further develop current PVC recycling practices.
To download a copy of the Vinyl-2-Life Action Plan click here.
To see the most recent updates of the Vinyl-2-Life Action Plan click here.
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