PVC Recycling
The production figures and market development of PVC and PVC products continue to show a positive trend. The PVC sector creates and secures jobs: the manufacturing, converting, and recycling of PVC translates into approximately 20 million euros in turnover in Germany and 170,000 workers in more than 5,000 companies for the manufacturing, processing, and trade of this material.
In the spring of 2004 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft PVC und Umwelt e.V. commissioned Consultic Marketing und Industrieberatung GmbH to compile a study. The aim was to determine data on PVC manufacture and processing and on the incidence of PVC waste in Germany. The results of the study “Production and Consumption Data for Plastics in Germany including Recovery 2003” have been available since October 2004. They prove that in the reference year of 2003 almost half of PVC waste was recovered. The proportion sent to substance recycling was around 33%, that for energy recovery approx. 10% and that sent to feedstock recycling 2% (with respect to 100% of the waste). Of the approx. 492 kt PVC waste in 2003, 272 kt were disposed of on landfills and in waste incineration plants, and a total of 220 kt were recovered. The quantities sent to substance recycling mainly came from production waste in the processing industry. Furthermore, the recovery statistics include 52 kt recycled postconsumer waste. But the amount recovered is actually even higher. So-called “in-house recycling” is not recorded in the statistics. This means that production waste that occurs on the processing machines that is ground and then reused immediately.
