REACH Workable Solution for PVC Recyclers

Vinyl 2010, the European Plastics Converters (EuPC), the European Plastics Recyclers (EuPR) and PlasticsEurope and have officially launched the Safety Datasheets for Recyclates project (in short SDS-R).

The background is the European chemical legislation REACH that requires an information exchange between producers and users of plastic materials. Due to their particular position in the supply chain, plastics recyclers may have difficulties to assemble the necessary waste composition information and may thus not be able to provide to their customers the information required to fulfill their REACH obligations.

The aim of the project is to create tailor-made Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for recycled plastics. They will be downloadable from an interactive website accessible to the recyclers.

These SDS will be based on the historical data for polymers and toxicological data for polymer additives. Recyclers will be prompted to input specific data related to the recycled articles in order to improve the accuracy and the quality of the SDS.

The four organisations are co-funding this project with a significant budget and have numerous experts working on it in order to remove an important barrier for plastics recyclers’ REACH compliance.

EuPC is the leading EU-level Trade Association, based in Brussels, representing European Plastics Converters. EuPC now totals about 50 European Plastics Converting national and European industry associations, it represents close to 50,000 companies, producing over 45 million tonnes of plastic products every year. More than 1.6 million people are working in about 50,000 companies (mainly small and medium sized companies in the converting sector) to create a turnover in excess of 280 billion € per year.

EuPR is the professional representative body of plastics recyclers in Europe. EuPR promotes plastics mechanical recycling and conditions that enable profitable and sustainable business, while offering a service platform to its members. EuPR members bring together 85% of the European recycling capacity processing more than 2.5 million tonnes of collected plastics per year.

PlasticsEurope is one of the leading European trade associations with centres in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris. We are networking with European and national plastics associations and have more than 100 member companies, producing over 90% of all polymers across the EU27 member states plus Norway, Switzerland, Croatia and Turkey.

Vinyl 2010 is the 10-year plan to improve PVC production processes and products, invest in technology, minimise emissions, reduce waste and boost collection and recycling. Vinyl 2010 is a Partnership registered with the Secretariat of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.