Plastics producer tracks pulse of wire recycling market

A combination of regulatory and bottom-line reasons have prompted Dijon, France-based Benvic Group to pay close attention to the recyclability of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic used as cable and wire coating or jacket material in its products.

The marketing manager of Benvic, which produces PVC and other thermoplastic compounds for manufacturers in several market segments, offered a conference presentation last year that examined what Benvic considers threats and opportunities facing the European PVC wire and cable industry.

Benvic Marketing Manager Eric Grange’s presentation at the 4th PVC4cable conference in Prague last October focused in part on what the company considers an “urgent need to develop best recycling and circularity practices for this industry in the coming years.”

Grange said upcoming EU legislation in the next five years may present challenges for Europe’s PVC cable markets but portrayed Benvic as preparing for and investing to counter those challenges in part by bolstering the role of recycling.

The marketing manager characterized PVC as still the most commonly used thermoplastic in new wire and cable production, with around 43 percent of market share in Europe, “mainly in the low voltage sector.”

Alternative polyolefin-based compounds have gained ground in construction, telecom and electrical infrastructure applications, says Benvic. However, makers of automotive vehicles and appliances “are restating a hungry demand for PVC-based cabling solutions,” according to the firm.

Even serving those markets, said Grange, will become more difficult in Europe as regulations pertaining to PVC recycling content (including plasticizers and flame retardant additives) become more stringent between now and 2030.

The restrictions on problematic additives are not necessarily beneficial to recyclers at the outset. “All of these regulations are likely to [prohibit] recycled content and recycling practices of various kinds,” according to Benvic.

In his presentation, Grange pointed out that circularity cannot be achieved solely by recycling end-of-life PVC cables into the future cable compound mix, and that a further stage of additive extraction will have to be applied.

While calling the circumstance “limitative,” Grange said in Prague that, nonetheless, “All basic constituents can be a path for recycling content: resin, plasticizers and fillers. Then, a specific strategy need to be developed depending on the cable compound grade, whether [it] be for insulation, bedding or sheathing.”

Despite the complications, Grange remarked, “Mechanical recycling can provide elegant solutions, especially in providing feedstocks from short life cycle products. In these cases, legacy additives are not a problem as the initial products are already compliant. This is the first set of options where Benvic is engaging solutions.”

On an ongoing basis, Grange said supply chain stakeholders will “need to work together in order to meet the challenges of the circular economy.”

He portrayed Benvic as poised to play several roles, whether by producing alternative polyolefin compounds or by “integrating mechanical recycling into all its processes and capabilities.” On its website, Benvic lists several recycled-content compounds in its product line.

Grange said Benvic has a strong presence in Poland and Eastern Europe, in Poland, and says the firm has “the right point of view regarding dynamics” in the region, including “specialization with plasticized PVC compounds.”