RECYCLING

The term recycling has become popular and has been constantly used, including as being the only solution to innumerable environmental problems.

Popularly, recycling is synonym to collecting a material to be reused in some way. The collecting step, however, is only the first in a series of steps involving the recycling process. For others, recycling is converting disposed materials into something useful, but this is just another step in a much more complex cycle.

A more appropriate definition states that recycling is any process in which wasted material or material resulting from post-consuming is collected and transformed into new materials or in substances that can be used or sold as new products or raw materials.

Recycling is a process that can help us solve part of the inconvenience that urban garbage causes to society.

Is PVC recyclable?  

Yes. PVC is a recyclable material and has been broadly recycled all over the world. However, we can clearly differentiate residues generated in the transforming industry from residues generated in the city. In the first case, it is common  to reuse residual material (scrap), turning it into new raw material, after reusing it in a new manufacturing process.

In the second case (urban zones), local authorities must provide an efficient organization to assure the selective collection of these residues by the population.

Regarding PVC products, it can be clearly noted that its presence in urban garbage is very low because these products have long life. For example, about 65 % of PVC used in Mercosur is employed in the manufacture of products that easily last over 50 years, like pipes and fittings, wires and cables etc. This is due to the fact that PVC is well resistant to aging and bad weather conditions.

Types of recycling  

PVC is easily recyclable and, once  recycled, has a great variety of applications.

If we study PVC history, we will see that its recycling is as old as its manufacture, showing that this is a viable process in technological and economical terms.

Because PVC is easy to be transformed and due to its thermoplasticity, it can be recycled in the following ways:

Mechanical recycling: is the most used system. Two types of PVC should be considered: the one originated from the industrial process or scrap (formed since the material source) and the one originated from urban residues. In both cases, the residues are selected, ground, reenriched with additive (when applicable) and transformed in new products. The differences reside in the steps necessary to the acquisition of the recycled product, such as the need to clean the residues from post-consuming. The recovered and recycled PVC is used in the manufacture of various products, such as pipes, profiles, laminates, and injected products like hollow products, brushes, wall  coatings, hoses, shoe soles, products for automotive industry etc.

Chemical recycling: the residues are submitted to chemical processes under temperature and pressure to decompose them into more elementary products, such as oils and gases. This process is currently only used in countries like Germany and Japan.

Energetic recycling: consists of controlled burning of residues, under technically advanced conditions, aiming to recover the energy contained in the material. This technology is used in all Europe, USA and Asia, but    few used in South America.

*  VINYLOOP^® : alternatively to all those recycling methods, there is also the technology of PVC chemical dissolution through solvents: the Vinyloop^® technology, developed by Solvay. This is a process that requires considerable investments and that demands a rigid control of the manufacturing facility. The picture below shows a summarized flowchart of Vinyloop^® process: