We stand up for sustainability in partnership
As a company, we engage in partnerships to drive the circular economy. Through memberships in industry associations and initiatives, we participate in numerous programmes for a more conscious and sustainable use of polymers.
We are members of the following associations and initiatives
VinylPlus and VinylPlus Deutschland e.V.
VinylPlus is a voluntary commitment by the European PVC industry for sustainable production and use of PVC plastic. The VinylPlus 2030 programme creates a framework for the sustainable development of the PVC industry by addressing a number of critical challenges. As a founding member of the Vinyl Foundation, RENOLIT co-finances this sustainability initiative. The VinylPlus 2030 commitment is based on three pathways: expanding the circular economy in the PVC value chain, making progress towards carbon neutrality and minimising our environmental footprint, and building global alliances and partnerships for the SDGs. Among other things, the target is set to increase PVC recycling to 900,000 tonnes annually by 2025 and one million tonnes annually by 2030. This commitment will apply in the EU-27 as well as Norway, Switzerland and the UK.
RENOLIT is also strongly involved in the community "VinylPlus Deutschland" (formerly AGPU).
Circular Plastics Alliance
The Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) is an initiative of the European Commission that aims to promote the circular economy for plastic products in Europe and to recycle and reuse recycled plastic into new products in the EU internal market.
In September 2019, RENOLIT signed the Circular Plastics Alliance Declaration to promote the use of recycled plastics in Europe through voluntary measures. To date, more than 330 associations and companies have joined the CPA, demonstrating their commitment to the circular economy in the plastics industry. The associations and companies have set themselves the target of incorporating at least 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics into products and packaging in Europe by 2025.
In 2020, we voluntarily committed to actively contribute to the achievement of the CPA target and defined concrete measures that we will successively implement until 2025. With this in mind, we have launched our central unit and initiative RENOLIT Goes Circular.
European Plastics Converters
EuPC is the professional representative body of plastics processors in Europe, whose activities cover all areas of the plastics processing industry, including recycling. It represents 28 national associations and 18 sectoral organisations, The plastics processing industry is, among other things, striving to incorporate sustainability as a key aspect in the production process. EuPC, in cooperation with its member organisations and in support of the European Commission's plastics strategy, has developed a single monitoring tool for the plastics processing industry, the MORE platform. The aim is to register 10 million tonnes per year of recycled polymers reused in products by 2025 - 2030.
Industrieverband Kunststoffbahnen e.V.
IVK Europe represents the interests of European producers of flexible films, rigid films and coated fabrics made of PVC. It is a member of the European Plastics Converters (EuPC) and works closely with VinylPlus®, the voluntary sustainable development programme of the European PVC industry. As a member of the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), IVK Europe is also committed to sustainability. It actively contributes to technical design guidelines and prepares work plans for the research and development of new recycling technologies.
ESWA European Single ply Waterproofing Association
Leading companies in the European roofing and waterproofing industry have founded ESWA to combine their expertise and promote the high quality of plastic coating systems. ESWA's main focus areas are durability and sustainability, health and safety, and protection and comfort.
ESWA member companies such as RENOLIT are committed to an environmental policy that covers the entire life cycle of their products. This starts with the production processes and includes all further processes up to the final replacement. Also due to the wide range of possible applications (e.g. in the field of green roofs for rainwater retention, artificial lakes, water retention basins and canals), the members' products enable interesting and important environmental concepts and solutions.
Operation Clean Sweep (OCS)
Operation Clean Sweep is an international programme to prevent pellet losses. In Europe, the initiative was launched by PlasticsEurope in 2013.
As part of this initiative, we are helping to prevent plastic particles from entering the environment at our production sites in order to prevent soil and water pollution. All sites are to support this initiative by 2025.
Strategic partnerships and cooperations
Rewindo GmbH
Rewindo is the recycling initiative of the German plastic profile manufacturers for removed windows, roller shutters and doors made of plastic. RENOLIT participates in the window recycling as a partner within the value chain and helps to ensure that resources are conserved and energy and CO2 are reduced. The Rewindo recycling service ensures that old windows reach the reprocessing plants, where the recyclable materials are separated. Recycling partnerships like this make a circular economy possible in the first place.
Photanol BV
Photanol BV and RENOLIT SE form a strategic partnership to develop polymers using CO2 absorbed from the air. This innovative technology works in a direct, fully circular and CO2-neutral conversion process without any fossil resources. In this process, light and CO2 are used as raw materials and so-called monomers, the building blocks for polymers, are produced by photosynthesis of cyano-bacteria with the emission of oxygen.
Thus, this process can not only contribute to reducing global warming, the new high-performance polymers also offer many advantages, such as fully sustainable raw materials, better quality of medical products due to higher purity of raw materials and a secure supply chain.
FITT and RENOLIT are taking a further step towards a circular economy.
FITT Revix is the result of extensive collaboration and shared visions between several players in the swimming pool industry. The new product contains 30 % recycled material from the RENOLIT Group's material cycle. By using 30% recycled material, FITT can reduce CO2e emissions by 10% compared to the previous version of the product. RENOLIT is thus making an important contribution to improving the company's environmental footprint.