Vinyl Institute announces second round of Viability recycling grant funding

The Vinyl Institute (VI), a Washington-based trade association representing vinyl manufacturers, has announced its second round of funding to five organizations totaling around $330,000 through its Viability recycling grant program. In total, the organization has committed nearly $1 million in project funding through contributions from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin producers Formosa Plastics, Oxy, Shintech Inc. and Westlake Plastics.

“PVC recycling is real, and there is still room to continue growing our industry’s capabilities,” VI President and CEO Ned Monroe says. “We’re extremely proud of our Viability grant program. It’s exciting to see many companies and organizations actively researching new and innovative ways to increase postconsumer PVC recycling. We’re happy to provide important funding to these five groups. It’s making a difference.”

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VI says its Viability grants support the purchase of equipment, advanced recycling research and development, educational programs and program management for long-lasting and sustainable recycling of PVC products. The organization says the goal of the Viability program is to accelerate postconsumer vinyl recycling to 160 million pounds by 2025.

The five individual Viability grant recipients' initiatives reach across the spectrum of the vinyl industry and represent innovation and progress, according to VI:

• Auto Mats & Accessories Inc.: The Dalton, Georgia-based company has been in business for over 35 years, manufacturing auto mats and other auto accessories made from postconsumer or postindustrial vinyl material. AMA says it is proposing to collect an additional 1 million pounds of postconsumer vinyl annually for remanufacturing into new all-weather vinyl mats. The company says it will use its grant to add another injection molding machine to its line to pull through these 1 million additional pounds of vinyl into new products for its customers.
• Consortium for Waste Circularity (CWC): The Gainesville, Florida-based organization says it supports a world without all waste, not just plastics, and has a vision to transform the recycling infrastructure through the advancement of economically sustainable waste to syngas to eco-methanol technologies at landfills and incineration sites. CWC says it also funds research and development at The University of Florida. Professor and Coordinator of Packaging Engineering Bruce Welt has been researching regenerative robust gasification technology to convert municipal mixed waste and safely producing eco-methanol products for the chemical industry to create circularity. The CWC says this research has the potential to be a true end-of-life solution for PVC. CWC adds it has matched funding received from the Viability grant to research and prove that leveraging halogenated materials in a regenerative robust gasifier will boost the output creation of eco-methanol.
• Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance: Schaumburg, Illinois-based FGIA says it will use the funding in preparation for a pilot program for postconsumer vinyl window and door recycling. Under the grant, FGIA will conduct a comprehensive market study of the market dynamics regarding window and door replacement. The information gathered will support the development of a plan and strategy for pilot program implementation.
• Green Eagle: Georgetown, South Carolina-based PVC profile manufacturer Green Eagle says it has developed a shipping pallet made with 100 percent postconsumer PVC sources that are more difficult to recycle. The company estimates that a 1 percent pallet market share would equal 75 million pounds of recycled PVC. The company says it will use the grant funding to purchase tooling for a first production run and customer testing.
• Revinylize Recycling Collaborative: The Alexandria, Virginia-based organization says that with help from the first round of Viability grant funding, the Vinyl Siding Institute’s (VSI’s) Vinyl Siding Recycling Coalition launched a program in late 2021 and spent 2022 and 2023 successfully building a pilot program in Northeast Ohio that has recycled 125,000 pounds of postconsumer vinyl siding. The coalition is working to turn the pilot program, renamed Revinylize Recycling Collaborative, into a model program and expand it to other markets. This round of grant funding will help officially launch Revinylize in multiple markets, with a goal to increase the amount of postconsumer vinyl material recycled in the U.S. by 5 million pounds in 2025.

More information on Viability can be found here.