Top Companies Recognized for Safety and Environmental Excellence Awards

The 2016 award recipients of the Vinyl Institute’s annual safety and environmental awards were recognized at the vinyl industry annual meeting in Washington, DC. The VI’s Safety and Environmental Awards are given to companies in the vinyl industry for improving worker safety and protecting the environment at plant sites throughout the United States and Canada.  These awards recognized facility performance during the 2015 calendar year based upon federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable incidents, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), other regulatory permit performance, and the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory data for air and water.

“The Vinyl Institute’s members continue their unwavering commitment to continuously improve their worker safety and environmental performance,” said VI President Richard Doyle. “Through the major investments our member companies have made, and continue to make, in safety training, process improvements and emissions reductions the industry has experienced an 83 percent reduction in unit vinyl chloride emissions while our industry’s PVC resin production has increased by 82 percent. In addition, our members have an occupational injury and illness rate that is ½ the rate of the chemical industry and ¼ the rate of overall manufacturing.”

The Vinyl Institute’s Safety Excellence Awards are based upon federal OSHA recordable incidents, which are defined as an occupational injury or illness resulting in medical treatment.  The awards, which recognize plants with five or more consecutive years with no recordable incidents, were presented to:

• Formosa Plastics Compounding plant in Point Comfort, TX for 5 consecutive years
• Formosa Plastics PVC plant in Baton Rouge, LA for 5 consecutive years
• Occidental Chemical EDC plant in Convent, LA for 7 consecutive years
• Occidental Chemical EDC plant in Geismar, LA for 5 consecutive years
• Oxy Vinyls Canada PVC plant in Niagara Falls, ON for 8 consecutive years
• Westlake Vinyls PVC plant in Geismar, LA for 6 consecutive years

The VI’s Safety Performance Awards recognize efforts to improve worker safety based upon OSHA’s recordable incidence rate. This award, which recognizes plants with no recordable incidents for the reporting year, was presented to five companies representing 15 facilities in the vinyl and EDC/Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) categories, and in the in plasticizer production, additive production, and PVC and chlorinated PVC compounding categories.  The recipients (in alphabetical order) of this award for performance during 2015 include:

• Eastman Chemical Plasticizer/Additive plant in Chestertown, MD
• Eastman Chemical Plasticizer/Additive plant in Texas City, TX
• Formosa Plastics PVC plant in Baton Rouge, LA
• Formosa Plastics Compounding plant in Point Comfort, TX
• Occidental Chemical EDC plant in Convent, LA
• Oxy Vinyls EDC/VCM plant in Deer Park, TX
• Occidental Chemical EDC plant in Geismar, LA
• Occidental Chemical EDC/VCM plant in Ingleside, TX
• Oxy Vinyls Canada PVC plant in Niagara Falls, ON
• Oxy Vinyls PVC plant in Pasadena, TX
• Shintech PVC plant in Addis, LA
• Shintech EDC/VCM plant in Plaquemine, LA
• Shintech PVC plant in Plaquemine, LA
• Westlake PVC Corporation PVC plant in Calvert City, KY
• Westlake Vinyls PVC plant in Geismar, LA

The Vinyl Institute’s Environmental Excellence Awards are based on outstanding track record of performance for five or more consecutive years under EPA’s NESHAPs, and other environmental permit requirements. The following facilities demonstrated continued outstanding performance in 2015:

• Formosa Plastics PVC plant in Point Comfort, TX for 8 consecutive years

• Formosa Plastics Compounding plant in Point Comfort, TX for 5 consecutive years
• Occidental Chemical EDC/VCM plant in Ingleside, TX for 8 consecutive years
• Oxy Vinyls PVC plant in Pedricktown, NJ for 10 consecutive years
• Occidental Chemical EDC Plant in Geismar, LA for 5 consecutive years
• Westlake Chemical EDC/VCM plant in Calvert City, KY for 8 consecutive years

The environmental criteria for the VI’s Environmental Honor Award include emissions reduction under the NESHAP, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for air and water.  The Environmental Honor Award is presented to two plants, one in the PVC category and one in the EDC/VCM category. The facilities achieving this award for performance during 2015 were:

• Mexichem Specialty Resins PVC plant in Henry, IL

• Westlake Chemical EDC/VCM plant in Calvert City, KY

Congratulations to this year’s award recepients!