Recycling vinyl sidingAll types of vinyl products can be recycled and reprocessed into second-generation products. According to a 1999 study by Principia Partners, more than one billion pounds of vinyl were recovered and recycled into useful products in North America in 1997. About 18 million pounds of that was post-consumer vinyl diverted from landfills and recycled into second-generation products. Overall, more than 99 percent of all manufactured vinyl compound ends up in a finished product, due to widespread post-industrial recycling.

Vinyl containers or rigid blister packaging can be identified by the "3" symbol as specified by The Society of the Plastics Industry coding system, now law in 39 states. A vinyl container can also be identified by the "smile" or "slash" mark found on its bottom side. These markings can be used by consumers to easily sort plastics for curbside collection.

The vinyl industry has taken the lead in developing automated sorting technology that large-scale recycling operations can use to separate different plastics from each other more efficiently. These include systems developed by National Recovery Technologies, Nashville, Tenn.; ASOMA Instruments, Austin, Texas; and Magnetic Separation Systems, Nashville, Tenn. The vinyl industry has also sponsored pilot recycling programs to evaluate the success of these systems and to test the feasibility of expanded recycling of vinyl.

Once recycled, vinyl can be reused in such applications as packaging, pipe, siding, parking stops, floor tiles, notebook covers, traffic cones and more. A study conducted by the University of Toledo in 1989 identified nearly 100 potential applications for recycled vinyl.