|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Voluntary Commitment of the PVC Industry |
|
|
|
The PVC industry is uniting voluntarily to meet the challenge of sustainable development. It has developed an integrated approach to deliver responsible cradle-to-grave management, set out in a Voluntary Commitment of the PVC Industry; that was signed in March 2000.
On 30th March 2001, European PVC producers and their industry partners published the first progress report against challenging targets set out in their Voluntary Commitment. Achievements by the industry over the past year demonstrate that it is already delivering responsible PVC product and waste management, with further improvements set to come over the next 10 years.
Manufacturing Commitments
Product stewardship and eco-efficiency are the key PVC manufacturing issues addressed by the Voluntary Commitment. Individual PVC resin, plasticizer and stabiliser manufacturing companies have committed to:
Set ongoing targets to reduce resource consumption (material and energy use in manufacture) where this is economically and ecologically warranted;
Review their progress towards such targets on an annual basis.
PVC resin production
Commitments on product stewardship and eco-efficiency compliment the resin producers; current programme to minimise their environmental impacts through compliance with the ECVM Industry Charters for producing PVC by the suspension (S-PVC) and emulsion (E-PVC) methods.
Plasticizer production
The plasticizer industry will continue to conduct research in order to provide scientific studies and expertise to help policy-makers develop well-informed decisions;
The sector will continue to improve the already sizeable scientific database of its products consistent with Responsible Care ® principles and use it to propose improvements to the product and its use based on the results of EU risk assessments;
Plasticizer producers support the concept of material lifecycle analysis to highlight possible improvements to the product and its use. They will work towards completing a database on various PVC plasticizers to achieve this goal by the end of 2000.
Stabiliser production
ESPA member companies will stop selling cadmium stabilisers in the European Union within one year and continue to work with the Commission on the targeted risk assessments for such products. EuPC will communicate to its members not to use cadmium-based stabilisers;
ESPA members will be carrying out initial risk assessments by 2004 on lead-based stabilisers under The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) and International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) “Confidence in Chemicals” programme;
Members will also continue to research and develop alternative stabilisers to the widely used and highly effective lead-based systems as part of a commitment to the gradual reduction in use of lead stabilisers within Europe;
ESPA will produce yearly statistics on stabiliser consumption by converters and their areas of application.
Waste Management Commitments
The PVC industry supports an integrated waste management approach, which aims to maximise the efficient use of raw materials and utilise the best end of life treatment option for each waste stream.
Together with the development of additional mechanical and feedstock recycling schemes it is anticipated that the total amount of PVC waste recycled will reach up to 200,000 tons in 2010 (excluding industrial waste). The PVC industry will work with stakeholders to develop the recycling schemes necessary to achieve this level of recovery.
Mechanical Recycling targets
The PVC industry will examine how recycling schemes already operating in some European countries could be expanded for use in other EU countries;
By the end of 2002 the PVC industry will have identified the sources and quantities of processing / installation waste to set meaningful targets for improving recycling;
The PVC industry will examine various applications for recycling potential against certain criteria (ease of separation, quantity of end-of-life product available, logistics and quality of recyclate);
Quantified commitments have been made by: plastic pipe and fitting producers and the window frame sector with 25 percent of the collected available waste from each sector being recycled by 2003 and 50 percent by 2005;
The PVC industry is committed to supporting the development of suitable logistics, recycling technologies and reuse applications for other PVC product sectors such as cables, flooring and roofing membranes;
The PVC industry commits to develop the use of high-quality mechanically recycled PVC in new products;
The PVC industry has already developed a systematic take-back scheme for production waste and will develop similar schemes for installation and transformation waste.
Feedstock recycling targets
PVC producers have committed to invest three million euro by 2001 in a pilot feedstock recycling plant to recover the products’ raw materials, chlorine and hydrocarbons.
Depending on the outcome of this pilot project (expected mid-2002) a decision on the building of a commercial scale plant will be made;
The PVC industry will also investigate alternatives to the pilot project process so that by the year 2005, feedstock recycling will make a substantial contribution to the treatment of PVC rich plastic waste.
Incineration targets
Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) with energy recovery will play an increasingly important role in sustainable waste management. Within this area, the PVC industry commits:
To support technology developments in order to minimise the quantity of salt residues produced as by-products of some MSWI technologies;
To develop purification technologies, with the objectives of recovering salt from MSWI residues to be reused in chemical processes and minimising the final volume requiring disposal;
To use its expertise to work to promote and support the development of energy recovery from MSWI processes.
To learn more details about this landmark event, follow the links on our page 'news' and 'news archiv'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
