Recycling Vinyl
All types of vinyl products can be recycled and reprocessed into second-generation products. According to a 1999 study by Principia Partners, more than one billion pounds of vinyl were recovered and recycled into useful products in North America in 1997. About 18 million pounds of that was post-consumer vinyl diverted from landfills and recycled into second-generation products. Overall, more than 99 percent of all manufactured vinyl compound ends up in a finished product, due to widespread post-industrial recycling.
Vinyl Recycling Databases
The Vinyl Institute website (www.vinylinfo.org) offers two comprehensive databases about vinyl and recycling.
- Mannington To Recycle 19 Million Pounds of Vinyl Composition Tile in 2009
- Recycling Programs Collect Vinyl Flooring from Construction Sites, Old Buildings
- Recycling Vinyl Siding Found Easy and Economical
- "Excellent Progress" Reported in PVC Recycling
- "OFF THE WALL 3" Turns Old Billboards into New Works of Art
- C&A's Carpet Recycling Program Surpasses 100,000,000 Pound Milestone
- Vinyl Material Key To Opening Christo's Gates
- Vinyl Recycling Success Stories
Mannington Commercial has undertaken an innovative environmental initiative to reclaim and recycle post-consumer vinyl composition tile (VCT).
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.
When a Canadian company stripped the vinyl siding from 275 houses being demolished on a military base, it was able to salvage 100 percent of the siding and then deliver it all to recyclers, saving many thousands of dollars in landfill fees and avoiding the landfill.
The European PVC industry reported that its recycling program "exceeded expectations" in 2006, more than doubling the volume of recycled material for the second year in a row.
To celebrate Earth Day, Peter Schulberg, owner of the Los Angeles Eco-LogicalArt gallery (www.eco-logicalart.org), will host OFF THE WALL 3, a unique, indoor and outdoor, fine art exhibition in which discarded vinyl billboards are transformed into spectacular works of art.
C&A Floorcoverings (C&A), a Tandus company, announced it has recycled more than 100 million pounds of reclaimed vinyl and vinyl-backed carpet, since it introduced the Infinity Initiative 10 years ago.
A key medium in artist Christo's heralded "The Gates, Central Park, New York" was vinyl. The ability to easily extrude vinyl to match the saffron color scheme of the project; its durability; and, most importantly, its ability to be recycled made it the material of choice.
Too often, people look at vinyl recycling with skepticism, and question whether vinyl is really recyclable. The Vinyl Institute has been asked many times to provide concrete examples to prove that vinyl is actually being recycled.
Red Seal Development Corporation
