Toward 50% PVC Recycling Rate - Historical Background and Prospects in 2003

Toward 50% PVC Recycling Rate - Historical Background and Prospects in 2003
In the early 2000s, Japan urgently needed to shift to a recycling-oriented society, and the recycling of plastic waste emerged as a major policy issue. In particular, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin was widely used for building materials, piping, flooring, wall materials, etc. On the other hand, it was easily criticized by society due to concerns about hydrogen chloride and dioxin emitted during incineration, and there was a strong need to both reduce the environmental burden and recycle the material.

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the Construction Recycling Law (enacted in 2000) and the Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (enacted in 2000) were developed, and the recycling of construction by-products and used building materials received institutional support. In addition, with the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and its entry into force in 2005, the promotion of greenhouse gas reduction and resource recycling became an inevitable international trend.

Against this backdrop, the PVC Industry and Environment Association announced a policy in 2003 to increase the recycling rate of used PVC products to 50%. It has established collection routes mainly for building materials, such as flooring and wall materials, and has put in place a system to deal with the increase in by-products resulting from urban development and demolition work. In addition, in cooperation with blast furnace manufacturers, the company promoted the development of technology to use recovered vinyl chloride as a reductant in blast furnaces. In this way, an "inter-industry recycling" model was established to achieve resource recycling in both the steel and PVC industries.

This plan, which set 2005 as its target, was positioned as a symbolic effort to share the awareness of a recycling-oriented society with the entire industry, and not merely to improve the recycling rate. In conjunction with the policy trends of the time and social demands for waste treatment, the strengthening of the PVC cycle attracted attention as a new development in the environmental business.