Three organizations received a combined $332,000 in donations from the Vinyl Institute (VI) trade group, which is trying to increase post-consumer PVC recycling to 160 million pounds by 2025.
The Washington-based association, which represents manufacturers of vinyl, vinyl chloride monomer, vinyl additives, and modifiers, announced the fourth round of funding for its Viability grant program.
The latest recipients are the Chemical Fabrics and Films Association (CFFA) in Cleveland; Every Shelter in Houston; and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"The three newest recipients of funding are representative of a broad spectrum of opportunities to keep this valuable material out of the landfill and in productive use in society. We are proud that the program is helping us to achieve our recycling goals." VI President and CEO Ned Monroe said in a news release.
At the university, Department of Chemistry researchers are studying how to break PVC into constituent parts that the plastics industry can incorporate back into production.
The research to recycle PVC through electrochemical conversion has potential both as a dechlorination step for mixed plastics and for use with difficult to recycle multilayer products like wire and cable and luxury vinyl tile flooring, the VI release says.
UM's research team uses electrochemistry to introduce an electron that breaks the carbon-chloride bond and results in a negatively charged chloride ion, according to a November 2022 university news release about its findings.
The technology slows the release of hydrochloric acid, and any acid that is produced can then be used as a reagent for other chemical reactions.
Also, the chloride ions can be used to chlorinate small molecules called arenes, which then can be used in pharmaceutical and agricultural components.
There is some material left without another known use at this time.
Researchers said the study shows how scientists think about chemically recycling difficult materials.
"It's a failure of humanity to have created these amazing materials which have improved our lives in many ways, but at the same time to be so shortsighted that we didn't think about what to do with the waste. In the United States, we're still stuck at a 9 percent recycling rate, and it's only a few types of plastics," principal U of M investigator Anne McNeil said.
The grant recipients can use the funding for R&D, to buy equipment and to manage programs related to sustainable recycling of PVC products.
In Cleveland, CFFA, a trade group representing manufacturers of fabrics and film made from polymers, will use its grant to fund the cost of recycling coordinators to continue to build out the infrastructure for roof recycling.
Some of that grant also will go toward raising awareness about roof recycling opportunities with building owners.
In Houston, the nonprofit group Every Shelter will use its second round of funding to move beyond the proof-of-concept stage of repurposing vinyl billboards to provide shelter for refugees in displacement camps in the Middle East and East Africa. The group received funding previously in developing the project.
To date, Every Shelter has diverted 450,000 pounds of PVC from landfills and assisted 12,500 disaster victims. The group will take the next steps in its business plan with the grant.
More than $2 million of Viability grants have now been awarded with the finding come from PVC resin producers Formosa, Oxy, Shintech and Westlake.
Applications for the fifth round of Viability grants are due Sept. 6. For more information, go to https://www.vinylinfo.org/recycling/.