- Four gold prize winners were announced at the INOVYN Awards ceremony on 20 October: Graboplast, Tarkett, Perlen Packaging and FITT. Each selected project is related to a specific INEOS Inovyn sustainability pillar: responsible care, carbon neutrality, circularity and value to society.
- The INOVYN Awards take place every three years to celebrate best innovations within the global vinyl industry.
- A record-breaking 130 projects from over the world were submitted this year, demonstrating once again the industry’s drive for innovation. 17 projects were awarded in total.
According to the company’s website press release on October 21, 2022, Graboplast’s PVC sports floor, Tarkett’s iQ Natural, Perlen Packaging’s PERLALUX PVC Mono Blister and FITT’s Bluforce RJ are the proud gold award winners of the INOVYN Awards 2022.
The long-awaited results were announced on the occasion of the Awards Ceremony which took place on 20 October in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The ceremony attracted representatives from across the vinyl value chain and beyond. As Geir Tuft, CEO of INEOS Inovyn, underlined in his welcoming speech: “It is fantastic to be able to reconnect with old acquaintances and meet some new faces. We all know how much the world has changed since 2019, the industry is at a pivotal point and I can’t help but think that we are already embracing the challenge.”
The 130 applications received this year demonstrates how the sector is moving towards more innovative and sustainable products. This year’s four winners are testament to its determination.
The jury picked Perlen Packaging as the gold winner of the Circularity award. Their PERLALUX PVC Mono blister with a push-through, transparent lid film allows the company to deliver a highly innovative 100% recyclable blister made of PVC only.
In the Responsible Care category, Graboplast presented a new sports flooring that guarantees better protection from injury for athletes. The active part of this new product is made up of three layers of PVC foam, which is key to the solution. The system transmits impact energy to the ground, and in doing so protect the athlete’s skeletal system.
Another gold winner is FITT, who won the Value to Society award with Bluforce RJ pipe system. For the first time in Europe, a pipe made of thermoplastic material with an integrated and immovable mechanical sealing system. It combines traditional rigid PVC with polyethylene chloride to ensure high strength.
French flooring producer Tarkett received the Carbon Neutrality gold award for its new generation of low carbon footprint iQ Natural vinyl flooring. It’s the world’s first flooring combining bio attributed PVC and bio-based plasticizer. iQNatural offers a greenhouse gas emission reduction of 60%.
Another important outcome of the Awards ceremony is the Jury Special Mention, which went to the University of Ferrara for its rigid PVC foams recycling process. These foams, found in wind blade cores, are difficult to recycle due to their multicomponent and cross-linked structure. Unife’s process enables the recovery of 90% pure PVC through filtration.
The winners in each category – 17 in total – were selected by an independent panel of experts. The expert judges were:
- Circularity: Jane Gardner
- Responsible Care: Oscar Vandevelde
- Value to Society: Zdenek Hruska
- Carbon Neutrality: Richard Blume
- Jury Special Mention: Richard Blume
“Everything we have seen tonight shows how the whole value chain is simultaneously innovating and collaborating to solve the challenges of today and tomorrow. The next few years will be very exciting and I look forward to being here in 5,10 and 15 years’ time to see the progress we have all made,” Geir Tuft said at the Awards’ conclusion.
The complete list of winners for the INOVYN Awards 2022 is as follows:
CIRCULARITY
- Gold - Perlan Packaging for its project ‘PERLALUX PVC Mono Blister –transparent’
- Silver – SPICA for its ‘new REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE process’
- Bronze - VinylPlus for its ‘collection and recycling process targeting non-infectious PVC medical consumables’
- Commendation - Grendene for its project ‘Circular Melissa FloxM Edition for footwear’
RESPONSIBLE CARE
- Gold - Graboplast for its ‘PVC sports floor with combined foam system for energy absorption’
- Silver - Ohla Plast for its project ‘Bio-sourced PVC foot prosthesis plus recycling’
- Bronze - EZD for its ‘PVC Soft Tissues for High-end surgical simulators’
- Commendation - Comfort Banho for its project ‘Portable PVC inflatable bathtub for caregivers’
VALUE TO SOCIETY
- Gold – FITT for its project ‘BluforceRJ: polymer alloy pipes for pressurised water distribution’
- Silver - Molecor for its ‘PVC-O DN 1200 -New Horizons for Plastic Pipe Solutions’
- Bronze - Renolit for its ‘Corrosion Protection Film for Wind Turbines’
- Commendation – Fainplast for its ‘Agricomp-Innovative PVC material for digesters’
CARBON NEUTRALITY
- Gold - Tarkett for its ‘iQ Natural next generation’
- Silver - Pipelife for its project ‘Hoppet (Hope): cutting CO2 at preschool’
- Bronze – Vulcaflex for its project ‘Nextethic®: Sustainable artificial leather for car interiors’
- Commendation - Polymer-Chemie for its ‘CO2-footprint for all customers’
JURY SPECIAL MENTION
- Unife for its project ‘Recycling wind blade cores and other rigid PVC foams by glycolysis’
