Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019 - 25

pvc - vinylplus

➡ Continued from page 23
recycling 1 tonne of PVC saves 2
tonnes of CO2, so last year VinylPlus
saved almost 1.5 million tonnes of
CO2 and the 5 million tonnes recycled since 2010 means 10 million
tonnes of CO2 emissions were
avoided.
Nevertheless, ensuring PVC recyclability is a challenge when most
uses are long-term like window
frames - 40, 50 even a hundred
years - and in that time the additives
used change, especially as many are
now restricted under REACH. Henrik
Fischer from Germany's Evonik Performance Materials explained that
producers "have to ensure the plasticiser has no impact on the recyclability of the finished PVC product".
PVC recycling is overwhelming
mechanical. Sevenster admitted
that when the PVC industry started
its recycling programme, "we
thought we'd have developed new
techniques, but recycling is not
easy, it's never easy" although

VinylPlus recycling achievements

"where we have seen some developments is in sorting," adding that
with mixed plastics, "sometimes it's
easy to separate because the density is so different." Sevenster said
"one thing we have to explore is
chemical recycling - or feedstock recycling" where the material is broken down into molecules, but it has
yet to be developed "because it's

complicated" and mechanical recycling is available.
Yet, Koen Engelen, of Belgium's
Proviron, noted that "PVC as a molecule is very suitable for recycling ...
you can recycle it again and again."
Sevenster agreed that some polymers
get shorter every time in recycling,
but "that's not the case for PVC - it's
quite resistant."

European plasticiser member perstorp develops
partly renewably sourced plasticiser for pvc

s mentioned in the above, plasticisers have been a key issue in the PVC
debate. This has ignited, among
others, a search for more safe and sustainable products. Now Perstorp is introducing
Pevalen Pro, a non-phthalate plasticiser
which is partly renewably sourced, say Jenny Klevås, Global Marketing Manager at
Perstorp and Linda Zellner, Director Innovation - Materials & Animal Nutrition. But
is it still attractive to develop new products
for PVC?
According to Klevås and Zellner, yes, it is.
"We believe that as a lightweight, flexible and durable material, which can be recyclable when made the right way, soft
PVC could be a more valuable and valued
resource. The durability aspect is important
as the environmental footprint is distributed over many years, in some cases as many
as 50 years. Flexible PVC is a resource efficient material and the key is to find out better ways to collect and recycle it," they said.
"The biggest challenge with recycling
flexible PVC is that we don't have any control of the type of plasticiser used in the
product. Substances that were ok to use
some decades ago are now classified as
they are found to be toxic e.g. heavy metals
as cadmium and led, and some of the low
molecular weight phthalates. Today, most
recycling is based on mechanical recycling,
which means that you don't separate the
PVC from plasticisers or other additives.
And this complicates the obvious advantage of recycling and the usage of the recy-

july/august 2019

Linda Zellner and Jenny Klevås
introducing Pevalen Pro

cled material. At Perstorp, we are involved
in different initiatives to enable a higher
rate of recycling, such as Hållbar kemi 2030
and VinylPlus."
As the two point out, PVC is one of the
thermoplastics that is less dependent on
fossil raw material, as a large share of the
molecule is common rock salt. Also, PVC
production has changed, with the use of
heavy metals declining around the world
and which, they said, have been totally
phased out in Europe.
"Additives and plasticisers have been
improved from an environmental perspective and the market for non-phthalate plasticisers is constantly growing, in Europe and
North America but also in China. We believe that PVC can be made sustainable and

by offering for example Pevalen Pro, our
true non-phthalate plasticiser based partly
on renewable raw materials, for flexible
PVC, we are certain that we can make a
positive impact," say Klevås and Zellner.
First introduced in 2014, Pevalen is based
on pentaerythritol and valeric acid and contains no phthalate whatsoever, they added.
"On top of that, it is a very efficient plasticizer, so our customers don't need to compromise on plasticiser performance; an aspect
that was very important for us during the
development of this product." Customers
have reported benefits including shorter processing times, being able to use a smaller
amount of plasticiser and a higher UV stability. Already boasting a low carbon footprint
compared to other general purpose
non-phthalate plasticisers, the use of renewable raw materials in Pevalen Pro increases
the environmental advantages even more.
From a chemical perspective, Pevalen
Pro is the exact same molecule as Pevalen
and can be used for the same applications
and in the same formulations without any
additional lab- or production verifications.
The only difference is the origin of the raw
materials.
Doesn't biobased tend to be more expensive?
"We are constantly looking for new biobased raw material alternatives to keep
the price as low as possible for our pro-environment products. Pricewise, our ambition is to keep Pevalen Pro as close as possible to Pevalen," they explained.

Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019

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