Tips on Recycling PVC
When it comes to recycling PVC, the hardest part of the process can actually be finding a company that can take your post-consumer waste vinyl.
Here are some tips and examples of what different kinds of services vinyl manufacturers and recyclers supply:
Vinyl Flooring
In the escalating push to divert material from landfills, vinyl flooring manufacturers are collecting installation waste from construction sites and even experimenting with reclaiming old, used vinyl flooring. This can save thousands of dollars in landfill fees.
Houston- based Tarkett Inc. began its collection program in 2002, which was the first North America. Over the past two years, the company has recycled more than 100,000 pounds of vinyl flooring. The company provides the collection supplies for clean sheet and tile installation waste. It is then shipped back to the facility and added directly to the mix. Nothing is landfilled. Any material that is not of required quality is sent to a company that incorporates it into roadbeds.
Vinyl Billboards
Tons of vinyl billboard advertising is tossed into landfills every month. Los Angeles Eco-Logical Art gallery focuses on a green solution to this waste by creating functional art from recovered vinyl billboards.
The vinyl sheets used in billboard advertising are stretched so that the material can be used as canvases. The vinyl canvases are almost impervious to the elements with little signs of fading, flaking or wear.
As a result, “eco-logical” artwork appears on billboards around Los Angeles. The gallery has also planned a national “renewable imagery” billboard art tour. The goal is to get the material into public schools and provide free mural walls to inner-city youths.
Vinyl-Backed Carpet
Georgia-based C&A Floorcoverings announced it has recycled more than 100 million pounds of reclaimed vinyl and vinyl-backed carpet since it started a recycling initiative 12 years ago.
The program recycles any post-consumer vinyl-backed carpet, regardless of original manufacturer, into 100 percent recycled content backing for new floorcoverings. Containing a minimum of 25 percent post-consumer materials, the remaining 75 percent of the backing consists of postindustrial waste generated during carpet manufacturing and industrial waste from the automotive industry.
C&A offers a buy-back program that gives customers financial incentives to return and recycle their old vinyl-backed carpet. All carpet returned is recycled in its entirety under a sustainable warranty provided by the company. C&A has had virtually no manufacturing waste since 1994.
Vinyl Medical Supplies
Massachusetts-based Conigliaro Industries is a full-service recycler in the healthcare, medical and bio-tech industries. The company sets up vinyl recycling programs at hospitals for collection of IV and saline bags, sterile packaging, employee ID cards and other PVC medical plastics. In the past, it recycled PVC into checkbook covers and plastic binders.
The company also recycles PVC roofing membrane, vinyl siding and post-industrial molding scrap. Over the last six years, it has increased vinyl recycling efforts from 5,000 to 500,000 pounds per year.
