Vycom®, a market-leading manufacturer of highly innovative plastic sheet products, has expanded its recycling program to include on-site collection of PVC, acrylic, and PE products at the ISA International Sign Expo show to be held in Atlanta, May 4-6, 2022.
The Vycom Recycling Program is designed to take back and recycle printed and unprinted PVC and acrylic sheets, and PE materials, as well as scraps and drops from finishing and fabricating.
Taking Back Sustainability
Vycom, an affiliate of The AZEK Company, is committed to stewarding sustainable practices, demonstrated by its substantial investment in recycling initiatives.
In 2019, Vycom announced its Recycling Program targeting users of PVC sheets—a common substrate in the signage and graphics industry—as they can be screen- or digitally-printed, painted, and cut or routed to create exhibits, point-of-purchase displays, indoor and outdoor signage, decorative store fixtures and more. This program provides an answer to the perpetual question ‘what do I do with my used signage and scrap?’, which is of particular concern in the exhibit and retail graphics industries where signage is often used for shorter periods and can be changed out on a regular basis.
Since then, Vycom has worked with industry leaders including CIP Retail, Condit Exhibits, and Piedmont Plastics Knoxville to collect and recycle scrap and used materials.
Vycom is extending this program directly to a major source of PVC use: signage and graphics exhibitions. Flatbed printer and cutter manufacturers and others using rigid PVC and acrylic materials in their demonstrations at ISA International Sign Expo 2022 are highly encouraged to use this program, provided at no charge to exhibitors.
Vycom Recycling Program and ISA International Sign Expo 2022
During the ISA International Sign Expo 2022, collection bins will be stationed around the show floor to gather PVC, acrylic, and PE materials that would usually end up in a trash dumpster, destined for a landfill.
Working with Freeman Exhibitions, the official event services provider for ISA International Sign Expo 2022, along with the Georgia World Congress Center and the International Sign Association, printed and unprinted sheets—with or without attached vinyl—will be collected from the bins and picked up by Return Polymers, an affiliate of The AZEK Company and a leader in PVC recycling and compounding. The scrap will then be reprocessed into the company’s residential and commercial products, ensuring these materials do not end up in landfills.
“We appreciate the initiative that Vycom has taken regarding sustainability in our industry,” said Marisa Heller, Sustainability Manager at Freeman. “We recognize that exhibitions are big users of PVC and acrylic materials that generate a lot of waste, and we were looking for a zero-landfill solution.
“The Vycom Recycling Program ticks all the boxes of bin supply and material collection making it easy for us to implement, and it enables us to continue our goal of being good land stewards by diverting plastic materials from landfills.”
About the Vycom Recycling Program
The Vycom Recycling Program is designed to take back and recycle printed and unprinted PVC and acrylic sheets, as well as scraps and drops from finishing and fabricating. The program is intended for users of PVC, acrylic, and PE products—in coordination with consolidators for drop-off or collection—to recycle used signage and scrap. The material is returned to company-owned domestic facilities and used to manufacture the residential and commercial products, ensuring this scrap does not end up in landfills.
The AZEK Company diverted approximately 500 million pounds of waste and scrap from landfills in 2021, increasing from roughly 400 million pounds in 2020. Additionally 56 percent of all the company’s extruded products were manufactured from recycled material inputs in 2021.
—Press Release
