Der australische PVC-Verband hat jetzt einen Erfahrungsbericht über das Programm „Fünf Jahre Produktverantwortung“ herausgegeben. Darin werden die Leistungen, Aktionen und Erfolge der australischen PVC-Industrie beschrieben.

PVC Product Stewardship is producing results

An evaluation report on five years of the PVC industry Product Stewardship Program has found the Program to be effective in facilitating improvement across the PVC life cycle.
 
The evaluation, carried out by the Vinyl Council of Australia, considered the achievements of the Program to date, as well as reviewing stakeholder feedback. The evaluation also involved comparison with other programs, and a review of policy trends relating to product stewardship.
 
The Program, launched in 2002, sets out a series of commitments for industry Signatories to meet related to the life cycle of PVC and PVC products. In the five years since the program commenced, the Signatories have achieved a number of solid outcomes.
 
The Program, along with the Plastics Industry Pipe Association (PIPA), has introduced pipe & profile waste recovery programs in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Commitments to phase out heavy metal stabilisers are well advanced with Signatories phasing out cadmium stabilisers by July 2004, on track to complete the phasing out of lead stabilisers by 2008 for pipes & fittings and 2010 for other applications.
 
Following the commissioning of an audit on PVC waste in Australia, the Program developed an action plan, Vinyl-2-Life, for improving recovery of PVC wastes.
 
Commitments are continually reviewed and developed and progress published in an annual report. Several commitments were developed as a result of stakeholder feedback; a commitment on consumer responsible care was added in 2006, and a new commitment on open disclosure of product ingredients was added in 2007.
 
More recently, in response to stakeholder feedback, the Council has commenced annual seminars to report on Program progress.
 
The Program is steered by a Technical Steering group that has Signatory representatives as well as external representatives from the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, and CSIRO.
 
Recommendations for the future of the program include continuing to build relationships across the supply chain to facilitate companies to take responsibility for their products, maintaining public reporting and encouraging continuing transparency, as well as considering co-regulatory approaches to underpin the program.

Link to evaluation report