The UK is second in Europe (Germany came first) in collecting and recycling waste PVC with a total of 137,989 tonnes recycled in 2018 across all PVC recycling formats.
Of this total, PVC window profiles accounted for 73,703 tonnes, according to latest industry figures from Recovinyl.
The UK’s efforts represents around 19% of the 739,525 tonnes of waste PVC recycled throughout Europe in 2018 – a new record high.
Across Europe, window profiles and related building products accounted for 44% of the total PVC recycled.
Much of what is being collected is post-consumer material and we’re doing a really good job in the UK, but we’d like to collect and recycle even more to meet the demand
Recovinyl, the PVC industry’s recycling scheme, was the largest contributor to this total and registered a total of 734,568 tonnes of PVC waste entirely recycled in Europe in 2018 – a 15.6% increase from 2017.
In Europe, the demand for recycled rigid PVC is currently very high, indicating the potential for further strengthening collection and recycling schemes, Recovinyl says.
Welcoming the ongoing upwards PVC recycling trend, Richard McKinlay, Head of Consulting at resource recovery specialist Axion, Recovinyl’s Regional Representative for the UK, says: “Recovinyl is a great success story and there’s still a huge demand for recycled PVC.
“Much of what is being collected is post-consumer material and we’re doing a really good job in the UK, but we’d like to collect and recycle even more to meet the demand. That’s why it’s important to recycle these frames, for all the right reasons.”
Cumulatively, almost 5 million tonnes of PVC have been recycled within the Vinyl 2010 and VinylPlus frameworks across Europe since 2000, with around 10 million tonnes of CO2 saved.