America Recycles Day – Americans Dedicated to The Protection of Our Environment
Every November 15th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrates America Recycles Day by acknowledging the importance of recycling and how it contributes to the health and safety of our environment. The EPA looks to build on its progress each year and encourages Americans to continue their recycling efforts year-round. Not only does recycling protect the environment, but an EPA study has also shown that recycling and reuse activities in the United States accounted for 681,000 jobs and $37.8 billion in wages.
The EPA also introduced the America Recycles Pledge, where companies come together to promote recycling capabilities to protect our environment and reach our recycling goals. In 2019, The Vinyl Institute signed this pledge to further their commitment for the vinyl industry to increase recycling efforts and reduce plastic waste. The EPA and other organizations who have signed this pledge have taken action, and developed critical action workgroups that cover the following:
1- Promoting Education and Outreach
2- Enhancing Materials Management Infrastructure
3- Strengthening Secondary Market Materials
4- Enhancing Measurement
The vinyl industry is highly engaged in recycling efforts. Vinyl is a very recyclable material and can be reused to make new products such as decking, tiles, and roofing materials. Within the vinyl industry, there have been various takeback programs implemented and the Vinyl Sustainability Council has created the V-Cycle Taskforce to have open conversations regarding common recycling roadblocks and increasing vinyl recycling overall. The V-Cycle Taskforce is diligently working to increase post-consumer vinyl recycling by 10% in 2025.
This year, both Ronald Mark Associates and Lakeland Polymers were recipients of the Vinyl Sustainability Council’s 2021 Recycling Award. The Vinyl Recycling Award recognizes the efforts of recyclers and product manufacturers with operations in the U.S. that find new solutions and/or markets for PVC scrap or end-of-life materials, increase use of recycled vinyl content in their products, and/or engage in partnerships with companies in take-back programs.
Ronald Mark Associates – Mass-Loaded Vinyl Repro Compound
Ronald Mark Associates (RMA) partnered with Norwich Plastics to develop a mass-loaded vinyl reprocessed compound. The product incorporates laminated scrap PVC materials generated in the RMA operations plus post-consumer materials from other industries. Working with Norwich Plastics, RMA was able to develop this new compound that is comprised of 50%-60% pre-consumer recycled content by weight. Since the inception of this compound, RMA and Norwich Plastics have successfully processed close to a million pounds.
Lakeland Polymers – Flex-Tech Hose
Lakeland Polymers, partnered with Flex-Tech Hose to develop a reprocessing strategy that allows incompatible feedstock to be filtered into a reusable form that addresses the PVC/co-polyester waste issue. Lakeland Polymers processes over 45,000 pounds a month of PVC scrap material. Together, Lakeland Polymers and Flex-Tech have diverted 325,000 pounds of PVC from landfills. Lakeland Polymers is committed to addressing and solving the challenges they face within their scrap stream.
The VSC is leveraging the efforts of the Vinyl industry to assist the EPA in reaching its goal to increase recycling efforts each year. The U.S. and Canadian vinyl industries recycle approximately 1.1 billion pounds of vinyl annually and are continually looking for ways to increase that number. Together, we are hoping to help the EPA achieve the National Recycling Goal of increasing the national recycling rate to 50% by 2030.
