Four companies are receiving grants totaling almost $740,000 to help advance PVC recycling from the Vinyl Institute, a Washington-based trade group representing PVC resin producers.
The funding comes from VI's Viability grant program, which is offering $3 million over a three-year period to improve the rate of recycling post-consumer PVC across the U.S.
The latest grant recipients include three U.S. and one Canadian company undertaking projects related to material recovery, advanced recycling, pioneering battery technology, and a unique manufacturing process for flooring.
The Viability grants can be used for equipment purchases, research and development, educational programs, and program management related to recycling PVC products.
The 2024 grant winners and their plans include:
• Oligomaster Inc. in Hamilton, Ontario, a product development and research company. The grant will be used to collaborate with Polyloop to establish a modular advanced recycling process that will enable 100 percent recovery of flexible vinyl materials as well as the production of high-quality secondary raw materials, including dry-blend PVC, polyester fibers and other additives.
• Exeon Processors LLC in Jonesboro, Ind., a recycling company focused on material recovery in the wire and cable industry. The grant will be used to buy specialized processing equipment that will allow separation of PVC from other plastics used in wire and cable insulation enabling recycling of millions of pounds of PVC materials per year.
• PolyJoule Inc. in Billerica, Mass., an energy storage company that is pioneering conductive polymer battery technology. The company will use the grant to demonstrate the feasibility of converting recycled PVC to conducting polymer chemistry for use in batteries, conductors and other industrial applications.
• Allied Industries International Inc. in Jonesville, S.C., for a manufacturing process to produce a commercial flooring product manufactured with 100 percent recycled vinyl. The company will use the grant funding to purchase automated equipment that will enable them to increase the quantity of vinyl recycled by several million pounds per year.
The Viability grants are part of the vinyl industry's goal to accelerate post-consumer vinyl recycling to 160 million pounds by 2025.
So far, about $1.67 million of grants have been awarded from the Viability program, which is funded by contributions from four PVC resin producers: Formosa, Oxy, Shintech and Westlake.
"We are proud of these four new Viability grantees whose efforts will help increase post-consumer PVC recycling," Ned Monroe, VI president and CEO, said in a news release. "Our industry has committed over $1.67 million so far to 16 projects to grow progress on PVC recycling. We encourage problem-solvers and forward-thinkers to apply to our next round of Viability."
Applications for the next round of Viability grants are due Feb. 9. For more information, go to https://www.vinylinfo.org/recycling/.