Vinyl Sustainability Council Recognizes Leading Companies for Sustainability Efforts
WASHINGTON — The Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), a self-funded business council of the Vinyl Institute (VI), which is leading sustainability efforts within the vinyl industry, announced recipients of its first annual awards, at its yearly meeting, Vinyl360.
“We recognize how critically important sustainability is to our industry and the globe,” said VI President and CEO Ned Monroe. “We’re proud to see our members stepping up to the ongoing challenges by finding new and innovative ways to become more sustainable.”
In June, the VSC launched +Vantage Vinyl™, the industry’s first-ever industry-wide sustainability initiative. +Vantage Vinyl has three impact categories, Resource Efficiency, Health and Safety, and Emissions, and participants are required to participate in task forces around these topics. Two categories of awards were based on +Vantage Vinyl participation, and the VSC was proud to present 12 awards to nine companies overall.
Going Beyond Award
This award recognizes Vinyl Sustainability Council members who are going beyond the requirements of +Vantage Vinyl participation and are doing more to advance their company and the industry’s sustainability efforts. This year’s award recipients are: Occidental Chemical Corporation, Shintech Louisiana, and Westlake Chemical Company.
Recycler of the Year Award
This award recognizes the efforts of recyclers and product manufacturers with operations in the U.S. that find new solutions and/or markets for post-consumer PVC materials, increase use of recycled vinyl content in their products, and/or engage in partnerships with companies in take-back programs. This year’s recipient is: Return Polymers. In a tight six-month timeframe, Return Polymers worked on their customer’s behalf to develop a 100 percent recycled vinyl compound capable of being extruded into complex refrigeration equipment profiles on either single or twin screw extruders, which also received a difficult-to-achieve V-0 flame-retardant rating at 1-millimeter thickness.
+Vantage Vinyl Pilot Program Participants
The VI and VSC also recognized the following companies that participated in the +Vantage Vinyl Pilot Program in 2019: Formosa Plastics Corporation U.S.A., Occidental Chemical Corporation, Shintech Louisiana, Westlake Chemical Company, Sika Corporation – Roofing, Geon Performance Solutions, Chemours, and Vestolit. These VSC members are contributing to 14 goals and 19 KPIs in 2019. GreenCircle Certified is tracking and monitoring their progress.
About the Vinyl Sustainability Council
The Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), founded in 2016 in partnership with the Vinyl Institute, is a council created to advance the vinyl industry’s efforts in addressing sustainability. The VSC is a collaborative platform for companies, organizations and other industry stakeholders to come together to create a sustainable development path for the industry.
About the Vinyl Institute:
The Vinyl Institute (VI), founded in 1982, is a U.S. trade association representing the leading manufacturers of vinyl, vinyl chloride monomer, vinyl additives, and modifiers. The VI works on behalf of its members to promote the benefits of the world’s most versatile plastic, used to make everything from PVC piping to flooring, roofing and vinyl siding. The vinyl industry in the United States employs over 350,000 highly skilled employees at nearly 3,000 facilities and generates an economic value of $54 billion. For more information, visit vinylinfo.org.
