Best Practice PVC Product Register

Best Practice PVC Product Register

Our Progress

Our Program is dynamic. Its commitments are reviewed regularly to reflect the completion of targets and to include new challenges as they arise.  Since 2002, the Vinyl Council of Australia has reported regularly on the performance of the Australian vinyl industry.The information and data collected through the program has helped inform industry and stakeholders, influence product design and ensure the Australian PVC industry continues to innovate.

The program has resulted in improvements in health and environmental impacts of vinyl products in Australia through:

• reduced emissions,
• avoidance of mercury in upstream processes,
• phasing out lead and cadmium additives,
• substitution of low molecular weight phthalate plasticisers,
• improvements in recycling and waste management, and
• adoption of life cycle thinking in development of new products.

Stakeholder feedback, signatory reporting and expert scientific and technical research help to maintain the Program's relevance and effectiveness. The Program's latest results include:

Transparency and Engagement

Monitoring and sharing with relevant stakeholders the latest scientific development on potential health and environmental impacts of PVC product life cycle.

Public reporting: The Vinyl Council is committed to preparing an annual progress report documenting the achievements and compliance of members against all commitments, as well as actions undertaken by Council during the year and future commitments. Progress reports are verified by an independent third party. An in-depth review of the Program is also undertaken by the Program's Technical Steering Group every five years.

Annual progress reports can be found under the Publications section.

Research monitoring: The Council is committed to assist its member in monitoring national and international developments in scientific research relevant to the potential health and environmental impacts of the PVC product life cycle and to share information with other Signatories and responsible Authorities and Agencies.

Stakeholder engagement: a Technical Steering Group (TSG), comprised of representatives from the industry, government and other stakeholder groups, oversees the development of the Program and the compliance of Signatories. The TSG has met four times a year since its inception in 2002.

Resource Efficiency

Favouring the recycling of PVC products at the end-of-life, managing responsible waste at the Signatories' facility level and informing consumer on the management of PVC at the end-of-life.

Packaging waste: Signatories see to achieve packaging waste recycling targets of 70% of all recyclable packaging materials. This commitments is only voluntary, and not applicable to Signatories that are on-going signatories to the Australian Packaging Covenant.

Post-industrial PVC product waste: all Signatories with manufacturing facilities seek to minimise the quantity of post-industrial PVC (product) waste requiring landfill disposal. To this end, the quantity of waste sent to landfill as a percentage of the total production of saleable PVC product shall not exceed 2%.

recoPVC¹: Signatories agree to use recoPVC in the PVC products they supply to the Australian market except where Australian Standards or regulations prohibit the use of recycled material, or when it is not technically feasible to integrate recoPVC in the product.

Consumer responsible care: Signatories are committed to make available information on how to and where to reuse, recycle or dispose of their product safely at the end-of-life. This can be done via the company websites, MSDSs or other appropriate media.

^1. recoPVC is defined by the program as any PVC waste recovered from external sources for reuse/recycling by local converters or suppliers of PVC products to the Australian market. It include PVC waste arising from manufacturing, fabricatoin, installation, repair, maintenance and end-of-life. recoPVC is purchased and/or collected from outside of the Signatory's operations and is used in the manufacture of new products. Examples of recoPVC include, but are not limited to, end-of-life products collected through take-back schemes, industrial waste collected from another unrelated manufacturer, and installation off-cuts collected via the building industry.

Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Management

The Program aims to improve the energy efficiency of member's facilities in Australia and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Program Signatories are required to measure their energy use and have a formal policy in place that aligns with the Program's Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emission Charter.

In addition, Signatories that directly operate storage, distribution or manufacturing operations are expected to measure their carbon footprint (Scope 1 and 2) and have targets and action plans to improve energy efficiency on their site.

Safe and Sustainable Use of Additives

Maintaining the avoidance of lead and cadmium metal and hexavalent chrome pigment used as additives during PVC manufacturing and openly disclosing additives used for products manufactured or marketed in Australia upon stakeholder request. Ensuring the safe use of plasticisers in flexible PVC products in Australia, and using PVC recyclate responsibly.

Stabilisers & Pigments: Members are committed to avoid the use of lead, cadmium and hexavalent chromium based additives in PVC products.

Plasticisers: Signatories must report when they are using low molecular weight phthalates , and support regulatory authorities in measures that encourage the market to cease the use of low molecular weight phthalate plasticisers in an application where credible scientific authorities show evidence of unacceptable health or environmental impacts.

Open disclosure: All Signatories manufacturing or marketing PVC products in Australia agree to disclose upon request the additives used in their products to stakeholders by providing general information on additives used.

Recycling PVC containing legacy additives¹: Signatories are committed to recycle responsibly end-of-life PVC products that contain legacy additives by meeting relevant regulatory health and safety obligations to workers and customers, avoiding use in inappropriate applications and ensuring products meet relevant performance requirements.

1. Legacy additives are substances whose use in PVC products has been discontinued, such as lead stabilisers, use of which did not render the product unsafe but posed potential health risks depending on disposal route. Safe recycling of these older end-of-life materials can be achieved, reducing the life cycle impacts.

Best Practice Manufacturing

Addressing environmental, health and safety issues from the manufacture and storage of PVC products, including emissions management, Environmental Management Systems implementation, and accounting for the upstream supply chain and its potential impacts.

Residual Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM): residual VCM found in finished resin should not exceed 1 part per million.

Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) Emissions: VCM emissions during the manufacture of PVC resin should comply with specific targets. With regards to PVC resin produced via suspension polymerisation, emissions are not to exceed 43g per tonnes of product, while the target is 500g per tonne of product for PVC resin manufactured by emulsion polymerisation.

Mercury use: Processes which exclude the use of mercury in the production of VCM and chlorine are available and widespread. Members of the VCA are committed to source their products only from mercury-free sources.

Environmental Management System (EMS): Signatories manufacturing PVC products or raw materials are required to have an EMS in place and importers are encouraged to source product from companies with an EMS.

Life Cycle Thinking: Signatories developing new products should demonstrate Life Cycle Thinking in the design process.

Embedding commitments in the company's operations: To ensure that a Signatory's compliance is not linked to the hard work of one employee but rather part of the way the company functions, all Signatories are required to embed all relevant commitments within their business management systems or within their EMS.

The Program

The Vinyl Council recognises that PVC products add significant benefit to society, including environmental benefit, as a function of their excellent performance, durability and affordability.

However, as with any manufactured products, there are impacts which need to be understood, characterised and addressed along the PVC product life cycle.

Our Program is an on-going, long-term, voluntary undertaking by the Australian PVC industry to recognise, and progressively address, all relevant environmental, health and safety issues within responsible and deliverable timeframes. The PVC industry in Australia has demonstrated its commitment to improve and innovate its manufacturing practices and products through this stewardship program.

The Program is focused on five key themes associated with the life cycle of PVC:

• Best Practice Manufacturing
• Safe and Sustainable Use of Additives
• Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Management
• Resource Efficiency
• Transparency and Engagement

Each theme includes a list of commitments which Signatories are required to fulfil. Given the varied nature of our membership, the list of commitments applicable to each company varies depending on its activity.

Upcoming Events

Advanced PVC Extrusion Training, February 2020

Build on your understanding of the PVC extrusion process by attending this intensive two-day course from a renowned US plastics extrusion expert.

Offered in NSW and Victoria in February 2020, this course is designed for production and extrusion plant managers, experienced operators, engineers and senior maintenance personnel to enhance existing knowledge and skills in PVC extrusion practice.

Course instructor: Dr Chris Rauwendaal, President, Rauwendaal Extrusion Engineering, Inc.

Course Outline
The two-day course will cover aspects such as:

• Using a high-speed data acquisition system (HS-DAS) in troubleshooting
• Determining the melt fracture behaviour of your polymer
• Eliminating melt fracture and gels
• Extrusion screw and die design
• Optimising the extrusion process
• Solving problems with polymer degradation, wear, voids in the extruded product
• Avoiding warping and shrinkage

Download the flyer here.

PVC AUS 2020: Shared Horizons - 26-28 May 2020 on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. 

The bi-ennial conference for the PVC industry value chain in Australia-New Zealand. Check our PVC AUS conference page for more information.

Registrations are now open! Register through Try Booking on: https://www.trybooking.com/BDOPS

Date: 7-8 November 2019

Location: Dockside Cockle Bay, Sydney

The Ozpipe XIX technical plastics pipe conference is the spin-off conference for the global plastics pipe conference PPXIX. Ozpipe XIX will be hosted by the local association, Plastics Industry Pipe Association of Australia (PIPA), a member of the Vinyl Council of Australia.

Confirmed speakers are coming from the UK, USA, Belgium, China, Austria and Norway and will join Australasian experts to address a wide variety of topics related to plastics pipe materials, design, installation and performance.