VinylPlus, the organisation for members of the European PVC industry voluntarily committed to sustainable development, has unanimously elected Carsten Heuer, as its the new vice-chairman.
Heuer is CEO of Rehau Windows Solutions, a subsidiary of Germany-based product manufacturer Rehau Group. The window manufacturer uses recycled PVC in 60% of its profiles, saving of up to 97,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year.
Heuer will take on the new role for the next two years. He joined Rehuau in 2017, where he is also member of the executive board. Before that, he was managing director at Schollglas Holding and executive senior vice-president at Schüco international, companies specialised in building materials for the housing industry. Carsten Heuer joined the VinylPlus steering board in 2023.
“There is the clear necessity for strengthening a competitive and resilient EU industry while aligning and supporting the European Green Deal,” Heuer said. “This means that a strong European industrial policy also is the backbone of social, economic, and environmental sustainability in the European PVC sector providing increasingly sustainable solutions across vital sectors.”
Throughout 2022, the VinylPlus framework recycled 813,266 tonnes of PVC waste, representing around 27% of the total PVC waste generated that year in the EU-27, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK. The result brings the amount of PVC recycled and reused in new products since 2000 to a total of 8.1 million tonnes.
The industry has also been investing in research and development projects aimed at removing legacy additives from waste and increasing chemical recycling of PVC waste that cannot be efficiently mechanically recycled. VinylPlus is also encouraging the broader use of the Additive Sustainability Footprint methodology, which enables companies to proactively assess and promote the sustainable production and use of PVC additives throughout the entire product lifecycles, in order to avoid problems in the future.