Toward 50% PVC Recycling Rate - Historical Background and Outlook at the Time of 2003 December 2003

Toward 50% PVC Recycling Rate - Historical Background and Outlook at the Time of 2003 December 2003
In the early 2000s, Japan was making a full-scale transition to a recycling-oriented society, with the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-based Society and the Construction Recycling Law coming into effect in 2000, providing policy support for the recycling of construction by-products and used building materials. In the background, there was a growing social demand to reposition waste from "treatment" to "recycling" due to the tightening of final disposal sites and the problem of massive disposal after the collapse of the bubble economy. Internationally, the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol and its entry into force in 2005 made the reduction of greenhouse gases and resource recycling an unavoidable issue. Under these circumstances, in 2003, the Japan Vinyl Chloride Industry and Environment Association announced a plan to increase the recycling ratio of used polyvinyl chloride products to 50%. The association has established a collection system focusing on building materials
such as flooring and wall materials, and has strengthened its response to the increasing number of by-products from urban development and demolition work. Furthermore, in cooperation with blast furnace manufacturers, the company has promoted the development of technology to utilize recovered vinyl chloride as a reductant in blast furnaces. This has created a model for inter-industry recycling that promotes resource recycling in both the steel and PVC industries. This initiative was not merely an improvement in the recycling rate, but was regarded as a symbolic measure for the entire industry to share a recycling-oriented society, and attracted attention as a new development in the environmental business.