Progress Report 2024: Pathway 1

This organisation brings together major players across the polymer value chain, recyclers, and Plastics Europe to collaborate on monitoring, verifying, and reporting plastics recycling and uptake data in Europe. It has since evolved into a multipolymer data collection platform to help the European plastics industry fulfil its commitment to use 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics in new products in Europe by 2025.

PolyREC® utilises a common data collection system, RecoTrace,® which was originally developed for PVC and now extended to cover all main polymers. While Recovinyl® retains ownership of RecoTrace,® PolyREC® has been granted a 10-year free license to utilise the platform.

Input and output of plastics waste

In 2021, 301 plants, located in 23 European countries recorded their recycling and recycled plastics use in RecoTrace® as follows:

As reported in previous years’ Progress Reports, the European Trade Association of PVC Window System Suppliers (EPPA)  is implementing a five-year action plan developed in 2020 that aims to increase the amount of post-consumer windows recycled and the use of rPVC-U (unplasticised recycled PVC). The plan focuses on France, Poland, and Germany.

In France, the EPPA partner UFME continued actively to promote recycling in the window sector. It expanded to 137 (a 50% increase from 2022) the number of signatories to its label FERVAM (Filière Engagée pour le Recyclage et la Valorisation des Menuiseries), which values best practices in the recycling of windows. Through its participation in VALOBAT, UFME is committed to supporting the doors and windows sector in waste management. Throughout 2023, EPPA supported the progressive consolidation of the reporting of rPVC volumes generated and used in France in the RecoTrace® system for all FERVAM signatories.

In Poland, participation in the BUDMA 2023 exhibition held in Poznań reinforced the presence of EPPA in the Polish market. At BUDMA, EPPA organised a conference entitled Window Profiles with PVC and Their Value Chain: Key to Climate Protection and Business Development. In May 2023, EPPA launched the OKNOREC PVC window collection and recycling project. The initiative aims to raise awareness of the recyclability of old PVC profiles from windows. The project’s primary focus is to enhance collection processes for PVC profiles, to ensure their proper recycling and minimise waste. The OKNOREC project aligns with EPPA’s overarching goals within the framework of the VinylPlus 2030 Commitment. Several initiatives are already ongoing, such as webinars and training courses for window manufacturers, distributors and window installation companies, as well as informative and promotional media campaigns.

In Germany, the consolidated partnership with Rewindo focused on communications and advocacy initiatives, such as a meeting with members of the Bundestag in spring 2023. It also included networking initiatives, such as visits to craft fairs and recycling centres to gain further contacts in the target groups and exchange cases of best practice. Studies are currently underway to evaluate the reductions in energy and CO2 consumption achieved through recycling. The Rewindo network continued to expand in 2023 with the addition of companies active in glass, fittings and reinforcement. More candidates from the value chain were ready to join in 2024.

In 2023, the European Plastic Pipes and Fittings Association’s (TEPPFA) German member KRV concluded a mass flow analysis (MFA) in Germany and a similar study is ongoing in the Netherlands. Further MFA studies are likely to be progressively rolled out by TEPPFA in priority European countries, starting with the UK in 2024. Through the mass flow analyses, TEPPFA aims to find out the potential non-collected volume. They are expected to set the baseline for future pilot collection, sorting and recycling projects of end-of-life plastic pipes at the national levels from 2025 onwards.

In 2023, TEPPFA also continued a project aiming to open non-pressure product standards up for an increased use of recycled content without compromising on quality, performance and longevity.

In Germany, the European Resilient Flooring Manufacturers Institute (ERFMI) started a pilot project within the Revinylfloor initiative in 2022, aiming to increase the collection of PVC floor coverings from scraps and end-of-life products. The pilot project is supported by VinylPlus as a Technical Project and involved two wholesalers, Lotter + Liebherr and Laminat Depot, which set up collection centres in some of their locations. By the end of 2023, 65 tonnes of post-consumer flooring were collected, 10% of which consisted of offcuts from the installation process. The collected materials were processed into fine regrind PVC at the AgPR recycling plant in Troisdorf, Germany, and then sold. This initiative was a success, with a greater volume of PVC collected than expected at Lotter + Liebherr’s Bonn location, so the company decided to extend this best practice to its locations in Frankfurt and Essen. ERMFI’s objective now is to broaden this initiative to gather additional insights and perform a comprehensive cost analysis, while evaluating the current wholesalers’ branch infrastructure.

To obtain a better quality of PVC waste, ERFMI commissioned additional tests in 2023 to sort flooring containing legacy low-molecular-weight (LMW) plasticisers from flooring that does not, using the near-infrared sensor technology provided by Steinert. Preliminary tests showed a concentration of orthophthalate content close to zero after sorting. Further tests were planned in 2024 to confirm the results.

In parallel, ERFMI and its members have worked with the consultancy Oakdene Hollins to assess the feasibility of implementing a sorting and recycling process on a commercial scale utilising the technologies explored by ERFMI within the Revinylfloor project. This work also included making realistic high-level projections of the levels of investment needed, the associated costs, the expected levels of revenue and the potential payback.

In Italy, WREP (Waste REcycling Project) is continuing to promote the development of pilot schemes for sorting, collecting and recycling PVC from bulky urban waste in collaboration with multiutilities and recyclers. In 2023, the number of partners involved in the operational phase increased to six recyclers and 13 multiutilities, and growing interest was recorded from potential partners in many Italian regions.

In 2023, the project was also extended to the collection of post-consumer PVC products from demolition and renovation activities with the signature of three Memoranda of Understanding with ANCE Verona (National Association of Building Constructors), ANCE Padova and CNA Veneto (National Crafts Confederation). These aim to implement a system for the collection, selection, treatment and recycling of waste from windows, shutters, pipes and other PVC products, coming from both production activities and the collection of separated urban demolition and installation waste.

A handheld device to sort PVC from other plastics in post-consumer waste was tested further in 2023. Developed by Phoenix RTO, the detector uses nearinfrared hyperspectral technology (NIR). It helped to reduce the percentage of impurities in collected PVC from an average of 3% to less than 1%.

In 2023, Phoenix was asked to carry out further feasibility studies based on scanning equipment that is already used to manage electric and electronic waste. One study aims to develop a handheld scanner that detects the presence of lead (Pb) in PVC cables. Another is targeting a system that separates ground cables that contain lead from those that do not. Tests conducted by Phoenix showed that the most effective technology that could currently be applied to the detection of lead in PVC products to be recycled is XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) technology.

In Germany, VinylPlus Deutschland continued its successful PVC Recyclers Meet PVC Converters event series in 2023 in collaboration with Rewindo, AgPR and IVK Europe. The project aims to raise awareness of existing PVC recycling activities and boost rPVC uptake by reaching out to demolition experts, recyclers, converters and recycling experts from the entire PVC value chain. Activities included two on-site events – one at the Forbo Novilon BV plant in the Netherlands and the other in Bad Dürkheim, Germany in partnership with BASF. The events involved more than 70 delegates.

VinylPlus Deutschland also participated in ‘Fachtagung Abbruch’, Europe’s major conference on demolition and dismantling with over 1,200 attendees in 2023, which was held in Berlin. The events were excellent occasions for the exchange of information and views over several topics relevant to recycling: the opportunities and limitations of mechanical recycling, including legal aspects; the need for new mechanical recycling solutions that replace waste incineration (with energy recovery); the need for other recovery options that contribute to recycling targets; and the future role of other recovery technologies, such as chemical recycling.

In France, the law on the fight against waste and on the circular economy, known as the AGEC law, required the establishment of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for building and construction products from the 1st of January 2022. This EPR aims at organising collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of building and construction products at a national scale under the umbrella of Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs).

In 2023, VinylPlus France actively followed the implementation of the French EPR, and, via Kaléi and SNEP, two national associations in charge respectively of flexible and rigid PVC building applications, joined the PROs coordination body OCA Bâtiment to ensure that:

• Waste collection guidelines are developed PVC waste recyclability is considered
• Individual producers’ collection and recycling systems are supported
• Research projects for plastics sorting and separating legacy additives from soft PVC waste are launched

The operational activities for collection started in May 2023. In 2024, VinylPlus France and its local partners will continue to actively participate in the EPR implementation, sharing all their experience on collection and recycling of PVC products.