News

To coincide with last month’s Global Recycling Day on March 18, 2021, VinylPlus Deutschland e.V. and PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V. organized an online workshop on “PVC and the Environment – Circular Economy”, which brought together many stakeholders from a wide range of scientific fields to discuss current challenges of a global circular economy. After a short introduction on the current developments and challenges of the circular economy in the field of plastic-relevant waste streams, Thomas Diefenhardt of Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV), presented Circular Flooring to showcase the recyclability of PVC floor coverings within a circular economy. Within the project, to date the recycling process has already been established on a laboratory scale, and the consortium was able to reduce the phthalate content in r-PVC to below the legal limit. In addition, a demonstration plant is currently under construction (read more about the installation here).

Based on Circular Flooring and other projects e.g. from the field of chemical recycling, necessary steps for the implementation of a functioning global circular economy in the field of PVC recycling were discussed. The workshop with 91 participants was closed with a wrap-up of current research and development in the PVC sector, new possibilities for accelerating the implementation of a global circular economy.

Many thanks to Thomas for the presentation, as well as to VinylPlus Deutschland e.V. and PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V. for organizing this comprehensive and informative workshop in such adverse times!