ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 23, 2009 – The Vinyl Institute announced awards to the top-performing companies in the vinyl (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) industry in improving worker safety and protecting the environment at plant sites throughout North America.  

These awards recognize VI members that had the best safety and environmental performance in vinyl production during 2007 and the most improvement since 2005 in environmental performance.  

Noted VI President and CEO Greg Bocchi, "These awards illustrate our industry's continuing commitment to concern for the environment and worker safety.  To receive the type of results that these companies have achieved speaks volumes about the investments all of our members have made, and continue to make, in training, process improvements, and capital expenditures."  

Environmental Excellence Awards are based on outstanding performance under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and an outstanding track record of environmental performance for five or more years.  

The winners for 17 consecutive years of outstanding performance are:

  • CertainTeed Corporation's PVC plant in Sulphur, La.: and
  • Shintech, Inc.'s PVC plant in Freeport, Texas.  

Other winners are:

  • PolyOne Corporation's PVC plant in Pedricktown, N.J., for 14 consecutive years of achievement;
  • OxyVinyls, LP's EDC/VCM plant in Deer Park, Texas, for 10 consecutive years of achievement;
  • OxyVinyls, LP's PVC plant in Deer Park, Texas, for 7 consecutive years of achievement.


The environmental criteria for VI's Environmental Honor Award includes emissions reduction under the NESHAP, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and for purposes of EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).  The VI awarded two plants with the Environmental Honor Award, one in the PVC category and one in the EDC/VCM category.  This year's winners of this award are:

  • OxyVinyls, LP's PVC plant in Pasadena, Texas;
  • OxyVinyls, LP's EDC/VCM plant in Deer Park, Texas.

  
The VI Most Improved Environmental Performance Award goes to plants that have achieved at least a 50 percent improvement in its Environmental Award Score over three years, while showing improvement each year.  The winner for this award is:

  •  Formosa Plastics Corporation's EDC/VCM plant in Point Comfort, Texas.  

VI's Safety Performance Awards recognize efforts to improve worker safety based upon the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) recordable incidence rate.  As defined by OSHA, a recordable incident involves an occupational injury or illness resulting in medical treatment.  The award, which recognizes plants with the lowest incident rate, was presented to six companies in the vinyl and EDC-VCM categories.  The winners are:

  • Formosa Plastics Corporation U.S.A., for its EDC/VCM plant in Baton Rouge, La., and its EDC plant in Point Comfort, Texas;
  • Georgia Gulf Chemicals and Vinyls, LLC, for its PVC plants in Plaquemine, La., and Aberdeen, Miss.;  and its EDC/VCM plants in Plaquemine and Lake Charles, La.;
  • OxyVinyls, LP, for its PVC plants in Pasadena and Deer Park, Texas;
  • The PolyOne Corporation, for its PVC plant in Pedricktown, N.J.;
  • Shintech, Inc., for its PVC plant in Freeport, Texas;
  • Westlake Chemical Corporation for its PVC plant in Calvert City, Ky.

  
Founded in 1982, the Vinyl Institute is a national trade association representing the leading manufacturers of PVC resin in the United States, as well as makers of vinyl feedstocks, additives, and film and sheet products, and promotes the value of PVC and vinyl products to society. 

For more information, contact:
Jeffrey B. Palmer
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Vinyl Institute
(703) 741-5669
jeff_palmer@plastics.org

Also go to: www.vinylinfo.org and  www.vinylindesign.com.