Today recycling is part of sustainable development .PVC industry has faced this situation with several solutions. PVC is a thermoplastic. It means that can be heated, melt and shaped in a new form as much times it is necessary.
In fact, PVC now generates post industrial wastes when is used in products 100% PVC contents. In this case, customers reuse their PVC inside their factories. This is also the way to recycle items 100% PVC.
In the cases in which the PVC is present in a composite, or is mixed with other products, exist some processes for separating PVC from other products. Among these processes, we underline Vinyloop, developed by the Solvay Group. Once PVC is separated, can be recycled in the general way, taking advantage of its thermoplasticity.
With an appropriate collecting policy, PVC could be recycled like glass or paper.
In addition to the above mentioned, we can say that today PVC recycling is an existing industry. Some examples are shown in the following files and/or links:
a. General
b. PVC Recycling
c. Environmental and sustainability issues of PVC recylcing
a. General
1. Is PVC recyclable?
2. Why?
3. What is a thermoplastic?
4. May I have examples of other products whose recycling process is based on their thermo plasticity?
b. PVC recycling
5. What are the most common steps in a standard PVC recycling process?
6. Is the PVC is easy to recycle?
7.Is it PVC recycled currently?
8. Can we classify the kind of PVC wastes?
9. What about post industrial?
10. And post consumption?
11. If the collection/separation is the main problem (because PVC is intrinsically recyclable), what the PVC industry is doing?
12. Are collection and separation the only conditions for PVC recycling?
13. Is there a recycling system for composite materials?
14. The PVC can be recycled when is separated previously, when shares a composite and when is mixed with other products. Does it exist other possibilities?
c. Environmental and sustainability issues of PVC recycling
15. Is HCl emitted when PVC is incinerated?
16. Are dioxins emitted when PVC is incinerated?
17. PVC is recyclable mechanically by many ways, and we also can recover the energy contained in it with solutions available today, that don’t cause impacts in the environment. But, is the PVC a product that generates high amounts of wastes?
18. And what about landfill?
19. And finally, if all the above mentioned solutions are not possible ,is there any particular problem caused by PVC wastes.
1. Is PVC recyclable?
Yes.
2. Why?
Because is a thermoplastic.
3. What is a thermoplastic?
A product that can be melt, shaped and cooled, recovering the solid state. Following this process, it is possible to obtain a new product for a second life of PVC.
4. May I have examples of other products whose recycling process is based on their thermo plasticity?
Yes. Metals and glass are good examples.
5. What are the most common steps in a standard PVC recycling process?
Separation of the PVC from other wastes, and proceed as it has been mentioned above. Collection is normally the crucial step.
6. Is the PVC is easy to recycle?
Yes. Once we have the PVC separate from other wastes, it is possible to recycle it in an easy and immediate way.
7. Is it PVC recycled currently?
Yes. According the figures of the voluntary commitment Vinyl 2010, 82.000 metric tons of PVC were recycled in Europe in 2006.We must add the quantity coming from post industrial recycling - 700.000 tons.
8. Can we classify the kind of PVC wastes?
Yes. The main classification is post industrial and post consumption.
9. What about post industrial?
The easier case. The PVC is identified and separated automatically. Almost all the post industrial PVC wastes are recycled (> 90%). The PVC converters use the PVC wastes generated by themselves inside their factories. There is no creation of wastes in the PVC converters activity.
The only exception is the products in which the PVC is sharing in a composite (strongly attached to other products).
10. And post consumption?
The main difficulty is the collection and separation. In the post consumption wastes, the problem is the mixture of products. The additional step in comparison with the post industrial case is the need to separate the PVC fraction.
11. If the collection/separation is the main problem (because PVC is intrinsically recyclable),what the PVC industry is doing?
The PVC industry is promoting PVC recycling, and subsidizing the creation of networks for the collection and recycling of PVC.
Recovinyl is a good example, with existing networks running currently.
In addition, PVC industry in the voluntary commitment Vinyl 2010,has established targets in recycling.
12. Are collection and separation the only conditions for PVC recycling?
Yes, when PVC is separated, it can be recycled without any problems. The only exception is PVC composites.
13. Is there a recycling system for composite materials?
Yes. The Vinyloop process developed by the Solvay Group, in the industrial solution for these cases and other recycling processes creating new products like mats.
Vinyloop is a selective process for PVC recycling that allows to release the PVC from other components of the composite, or separate it in a selective way when PVC is mixed with other products.
14. The PVC can be recycled when is separated previously, when shares a composite and when is mixed with other products. Does it exist other possibilities?
Yes. As any other plastic, the energy contained in it can be recovered. The most common way is incineration.
15. Is HCl emitted when PVC is incinerated?
Yes, but HCl is easily suppressed with the existing technology (eg NEUTREC).
Much investigation has gone into this question over the years and the conclusions are that sulphur dioxide, produced mainly by power stations, and nitrogen oxide, produced mainly by motor vehicles, account for around 98 % of the total potential acidity in the atmosphere. The remaining two per cent is hydrogen chloride. Of this, 0.5 per cent can be attributed to municipal waste incinerators. As incinerators are fitted with efficient gas scrubbers, this figure will fall further. The contribution to all the acid gases from the burning of PVC, is less than 0.25 per cent.
16. Are dioxins emitted when PVC is incinerated?
Yes, but is the same case as HCl. With the existing technologies, it can be very well controlled. In addition, due that the PVC is present only in very low quantities in solid urban wastes, both HCl and dioxins coming from PVC are a low part of the total acid and dioxins generated in the incineration.
The idea that PVC within incinerated waste causes the formation of high levels of dioxins is out of date and incorrect. Extensive scientific studies conducted in the USA, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK have all concluded that the removal of PVC from the waste stream has no effect on the amount of dioxins produced. Even without PVC, there will remain enough chlorine from other materials such as paper, vegetable waste and table salt to form dioxins. Today, dioxin emissions can be regulated through the correct operation of the combustion plant and the use of appropriate emission control equipment. The main factor controlling dioxin emissions are related to the operating conditions of the incinerator. In fact, the current emission levels from modern plants are so low that they are found to be perfectly acceptable by the authorities in many European countries and are the basis for standards adopted by the European Union (Incineration Directive EC 2000/76/EC). Controlling the efficiency of combustion plants is a much better way of solving the dioxins problem than trying to regulate what people throw in their waste bins.
17. PVC is recyclable mechanically by many ways, and we also can recover the energy contained in it with solutions available today, that don’t cause impacts in the environment.
Is the PVC a product that generates high amounts of wastes?
No. Consumers in European Union countries produce more than 114 million- metric tonnes of domestic waste, of which plastics account for around seven per cent by weight. PVC: accounts for only nine per cent of that total plastics waste. Looked at another way, this is a good deal less than one per cent of all domestic waste. One of the reasons for the low level of PVC in domestic waste is that more than 70 per cent of this material is used for applications that have a service life of more than ten years. In addition, more than 40 per cent of all PVC being produced goes into applications with expected lifetimes of 40 years and more; some, like pipes, even 100 years. Larger quantities of PVC long-life applications will only start to enter the waste stream after the year 2015, by which time comprehensive waste management schemes for this product have to be in place. If we compare the amounts of PVC waste generated in solid urban residues, with other products involved in packaging, this amount is negligible.
18. And what about landfill?
As all the other products put in landfill, PVC takes up a space. On the other hand, just remark that PVC is a polymer with a high chemical stability. So, put in landfill doesn’t cause any problem of descompoition, and it releases only very minor amounts of plasticizer, which are biodegradable. In fact, Vinyloop and other processes are taking PVC coming from landfill in order to reciclate it. The PVC existing in landfill, could be recovered in the future.
19. And finally, if all the above mentioned solutions are not possible, is there any particular problem caused by PVC wastes.
No. If all the a.m. solutions are not possible is for operative reasons. The collection and separation of wastes in general, is not handled by the manufacturers of the product. Normally is responsibility of the administrations, and needs to be implemented with their participation.
As it has been mentioned, the PVC industry is promoting today the creation of these kinds of initiatives (Recovinyl), and creating new technologies (Vinyloop).
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