Why is Vinyloop® considered to be a Mechanical Recycling Process?
The definition is indeed a little ambiguous. But the explanation is very simple. Although the Vinyloop® process utilizes chemicals (solvents) to dissolve the PVC resin, there is no modification of the PVC molecule. The EU Green Paper on PVC (Section 4.3.) defines chemical recycling as a method in which the polymer molecules are broken into smaller molecules like monomers. This is not the case for Vinyloop®. All the operations in the process involve physical transformations of the PVC resin or compound, but not its chemical modification.
