This time last year – and in these pages – polymer compounder Benvic launched its new mission: Redesigning plastics. For Good. Subsequent months have seen the company make good on this promise with significant inroads into several key markets.
Benvic
PVC compounds & soft PVC recycling
Sustainability and the circular economy are key to everything Benvic does. The company’s core legacy business in PVC compounds has seen particular focus and development. For example, visitors to the Plastics Recycling Show Europe (PRSE) in Amsterdam in April this year will have seen this first hand, sampling the diversity of the company’s sustainable polymer compounds for many markets and applications.
Benvic Recycling has received significant investment between September 2024 and March 2025. New equipment for sorting, homogenisation and regeneration has enabled the Chevigny-based facility to produce secondary raw materials (SRM) that are not only fit for new European regulations, such as legacy additive compliance but also meet specific testing requirements for particular applications.
For the French markets, Benvic can deliver SRM compounds according to the required QB34 building certifications by managing specific tests, batch to batch. The mission is to help direct customers, profile producers and window producers advance in their sustainability programs. The intent is to extend these material competencies to all similar construction sectors throughout Europe.
Soft PVC recycling is another challenge where recent EU legacy additive regulation is creating a strong headwind to growth. Benvic is designing mechanical recycled solutions for new soft PVC compounds and recycling techniques to remove additives. These could be the ultimate solution but are not yet available at scale. For fluid vinyl fittings in water-based infrastructures, the company is marketing its IR25R grades – working to provide recycling content without the EU circularity constraints that are set to apply in 2026.
In addition to core PVC compounding activities, Benvic is also moving its Redesigning plastics mission into applications where PVC is less well represented, such as consumer goods, electrical and electronics and automotive.
Post-consumer recyclate (PRC)
The company’s formulation and production know-how in polypropylene compounds (the DotCore brand) allows it to integrate a significant fraction of post-consumer recyclate (PRC). All Benvic’s PP grades – including talc, calcium carbonate and glass filled – are eligible for this improvement with a simple target: to keep the material performance as close as possible to the virgin one.
Specific strategies are developed for some properties, such as colour matching, where PRC by its nature has some limitations. Benvic is also creating bespoke solutions, either through other thermoplastic families such as rABS or based on specific feedstocks to challenge existing virgin thermoplastics. Specific alloys around rPET are another innovative way to substitute materials such as ABS-PC by maximising the PRC amount.
Regulation changes, such as eco-design and end-of-life vehicle directives, need the supply chain to be open to new ideas. This way, Benvic can apply its PVC-based compounding DNA to develop the right material at an adequate cost and with a substantially improved environmental benefit.
The circular economy also finds its way into other markets where Benvic is a big player. These include the cabling sector, where the company is presenting sustainable know-how to peers and customers in both Europe and the USA. The flagship product – Linkflex – a halogen-free flame-retardant compound family, allows the possibility of PRC integration for some grades, thanks to deep formulation know-how, without compromising performance.
Further down the road, Benvic is also looking at integrating post-consumer recyclate into these markets. The company is creating compounds from non-recurrent and heterogeneous feedstocks and making materials with much-improved life cycle assessment.
Biobased materials
Biobased material solutions are also included in the polymer compounder’s one-stop-material-shop and one-stop-shop approach to material sustainability.
Benvic regularly uses biobased resins or fillers in new product ranges such as ProVinyl Infinite, which was launched last year. The company is also developing biobased feedstocks such as PLA and PHA – commonly known as bioplastics. Benvic’s bio brand Plantura is gaining ground in high-end applications such as medical and healthcare, designer furniture and low-end, as well as applications for agriculture and the countryside.
The initial expectation for such bioplastic polymers has been very high due to their eco-balance figures and the possibility of being compostable. To date, some significant technical and commercial challenges have arisen in this niche, limiting the scope of their use for the time being.
Simply put, plastic part recovery is not possible in rural and remote environments. Part breakage and dispersion during service prevent the traditional “3Rs” (repair, reuse, recycle) of the circular economy. In such cases, the material must have a reasonable degradation time by design in the environment. Enter Benvic’s Plantura. Degradable products such as this offer a much better alternative than conventional plastics for applications such as agriculture, gardening and sport & leisure.
In summary, the company’s new mission – Redesigning plastics. For Good – has brought Benvic back to the spirit of its past; the invention and improvisation that allowed the core company's DNA to thrive in those foundational years.
The current expansion of the circular economy is – in some ways – an echo of those early times. Benvic compounding is now in the service of the sustainable economy, custom-made and low carbon for effective cost and performance.