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National Packaging Covenant Action Plan
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The stakeholders in the Vinyl Bottle Industry Group (of which AV was a member until July 2007) are signatories to the Australian Government’s National Packaging Covenant.
Under their obligations to the Covenant, the Group developed the Vinyl Bottle Industry Action Plan setting out its commitments under the terms of the Covenant.
At the outset, the principal objective was to achieve a 25% p.a. recovery and recycling rate for post-consumer vinyl bottles over a three year period. This target was achieved and surpassed.
Two subsequent Action Plans have been registered. The latest Action Plan runs through to July 2008. Its aim is to increase the total recovery and recycling of PVC bottles to greater than 50%.
Based on surveys by respected consultants Nolan ITU (now Hyder Consulting) conducted in 2000, 2003 and 2005, Australian households have increased the proportion of post-consumer PVC bottles being put out on kerbsides for recycling from 30% to 55%. Much of these increases can be attributed to the efforts of the Vinyl Cycle project in increasing community awareness that PVC bottles can be recycled.
Although the volume of PVC bottles recovered through kerbside collection has risen, much of it continues to be sent offshore for processing. Countries such as China process the PVC turning the recyclate into useful products. In Australia, the Vinyl Cycle project processes approximately 13% of the PVC bottles that have been collected. Local manufacturers convert the recyclate into PVC pipe fittings and floor coverings.
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