Under the new bill rigid PVC products that are collected and recycled would be exempt from tax

Under the new bill rigid PVC products that are collected and recycled would be exempt from tax

The Danish government will read a bill next month that could exempt from taxation all rigid PVC products that are collected and recycled. In 2000 the government imposed taxes on some products containing phthalates and some rigid PVC building products – notably gutters, roofing and cable trays. It set the levy at around E1/kg of phthalates and E0.25/kg for each kg of PVC sold within Denmark.

The bill says that since collection and mechanical recycling of a number of rigid PVC products is now a possibility, the original aim of maintaining taxation on these products no longer applies. Minister for Environment Hans Chr Schmidt said: “Environmentally correct behaviour should be recompensed…. In my opinion it is common sense to lift the tax on the rigid PVC material.”

Ole Grшndahl Hansen of the PVC Information Council Denmark welcomed the proposed tax changes. “The PVC industry in Denmark and Europe has over the past few years implemented so remarkable improvements that it is no longer relevant to consider PVC as a separate problematic material,” he said.

However, environmental pressure groups including Greenpeace are opposing the plans. Meanwhile, a novel PVC waste processing plant has been established in Stignжs with funding from both the European Commission and Vinyl 2010.

Due to open next year, the plant will recycle 100,000tpa of both rigid and plasticised PVC including flooring, tents and tarpaulins. Since Denmark produces only 30,000tpa of PVC waste, additional feedstock will be imported.

The plant will chemically recycle the PVC to produce salt, which can be reused for new PVC production. The solid residue from the process will be combined with a by-product from the adjacent sewage sludge processing plant to produce sandblasting media.