2024 Design for Reuse Award

The “Design for Reuse Award” recognizes vinyl products purposely designed for disassembly, recycling, or reuse at the product’s end of life. Priority is given to those products where these design criteria were a fundamental aspect of the design process. Submissions should address the reuse design objective and the improvement achieved as a result.

A few examples, but not limited to:

• Product design allows for components and materials of an assembly to be removed, recycled, and replaced with new components to extend the assembly’s useful life.
• Design development that allows for the new use or increased use of recycled content.
• Product design that facilitates recycling at end of life.

The Vinyl Sustainability Council is taking award submissions until October 1, 2024.

Note: The deadline has passed. The next round of submissions will open up in early 2025. 

Award criteria:

• Open to all vinyl product manufacturers with operations in North America, except companies that employ individuals who are a director or officer of the Vinyl Institute (VI) who are involved in selecting winners are not eligible to enter.
• The product must have been marketed in North America within an 21-month period (January 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024).
• Provide the following as applicable:
• New Product:
  • Date the product was launched
  • Describe the challenge and design intent related to the reuse objective.
  • How does the product’s design contribute to the reuse objective?
  • If recycling is integral to the project, what infrastructure is in place to make this a reality? (cannot be hypothetical)
• Your submission must include two or more images in the form of one or more mediums: photos, video, media coverage, webpage links (any digital assets that showcase your efforts) etc. that tell the story about your innovation and its effect on one or more stakeholder group. The submitting organization is responsible for securing the right to use these images for the award submission and promotional uses.
• Limit one submission per organization.
• The individual making a submission represents that s/he is authorized to submit the information on the organization’s behalf, and none of the information submitted is proprietary or confidential information. By submitting an entry, the organization grants the Vinyl Institute (VI) and the Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC) an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to use (or not use), edit, reproduce, distribute, and prepare derivative works based on all or any part of the information provided for any purposes (including promotional purposes), including, but not limited to, social media, print ads, white papers, website, web banner ads and submission for external innovations awards on behalf of the vinyl industry. If any individuals are depicted in submission materials, the person making the submission represents that such individuals have consented to the use of their name, image, or likeness for promotional and other purposes.

Submission Deadline: October 1, 2024, award winners will be notified by or before October 14, 2024 via email to the company contact listed on the form. If the VI/VSC is unable to contact a winner within five (5) business days of notifying the representative via email, an alternate may be selected.

The VI/VSC shall not be responsible for: late, lost, incomplete, inaccurate, misdirected, or undelivered submissions; lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server, Internet Service Provider, website, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications; technical failures; computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties; or other errors or difficulties of any kind, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with administration, the processing or selection of submissions.

Number of awards:

Evaluation and selection:

A committee will be selected by the VSC to review all submitted entries.