The Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry is a 10-year plan for sustainable development and product stewardship across the life cycle of PVC. It was set up in 2000 to minimise the environmental impact of the PVC production, promote responsible use of additives, support collection and recycling, and encourage social dialogue between all of the industry stakeholders. Vinyl 2010 is the legal entity set up to provide the organisational and financial infrastructure to manage and monitor the actions undertaken as part of the Voluntary Commitment. It groups European vinyl resin manufacturers, plastic converters and producers of stabilisers and plasticisers. The four founding members are: the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM), the European Plastics Converters (EuPC), the European Stabiliser Producers Associations (ESPA) and the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI).

Vinyl 2010 operates through projects covering technology, research, organisation (e.g. recycling schemes) and communication (e.g. on best practice). Total expenditure on waste management projects reached 8.2 million Euro in 2008 (more than 43 million Euro over the last 8 years) and the resource allocation in terms of time and effort is considerably greater.

As planned from the beginning, the Voluntary Commitment was reviewed and revised in 2006 to take into account practical experience, technical progress and the enlargement of the European Union , and it is now rolled-out across the EU-27.

Governments:
Government of European Community - EU Commission (DG Environment and DG Enterprise)
Government of European Community - EU Parliament

Major Groups:
Vinyl 2010 (Belgium)

Other:
EMCEF Europe (Belgium)
Organizacion de Consumidores y Usuarios (Spain)