PVC Recycling up in UK Led by PVC-U Window Frames

The UK is recycling over one million post consumer PVC-U window frames each year, or 25,480 tonnes, through the PVC industry's recycling scheme Recovinyl. According to the scheme, the latest audited figures show that end-of-life windows and profiles comprised 52% of the total 48,544 tonnes of waste PVC recycled in the UK during 2011. Recovinyl estimated that the windows and profiles fraction, which doesn't include doors, would equate to roughly 1.25 million frames or enough replacement windows for around 122,000 houses and flats – almost as many as the 137,000 new dwellings built in the UK throughout 2011. Other materials collected and recycled through the Recovinyl programme included pipes and fittings, cables, flexible PVC and rigid PVC films. New verified data for 2012 is expected in April. "Thanks to the real efforts being made to collect these waste frames and the infrastructure now in place to recycle them, waste PVC-U can be diverted from landfill and successfully turned back into useful new products," commented Jane Gardner, of Axion Consulting, Recovinyl's UK agents. Jason Leadbitter, chairman of the VinylPlus Controlled Loop Committee, added: "Importantly we are not claiming that all of the one million window frames are being manufactured into new window frames, but we are claiming that more than one million window frames are being recycled into second life products for long-term use in the construction industry, including new windows." As the PVC industry's recycling scheme, Recovinyl is also an initiative of VinylPlus, the ten-year Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry, which is tackling the sustainability challenges for PVC and delivery of fresh recycling targets to 2020. These targets include 800,000 tonnes to be re-used in all European countries by 2020 - with 700,000 tonnes mechanically recycled and the rest using new technologies for more difficult-to-recycle or contaminated PVC. Read More Self Regulation: Lessons from PVC Recycling Having reached a voluntary target to recycle an additional 200,000 tonnes of material by 2010, the European PVC industry has moved the goalposts with the launch of the VinylPlus commitment. Ben Messenger looks at what this means for self regulation across Europe. Vinyloop: Recycled PVC Cuts Global Warming Potential by 39% PVC recycling specialist VinyLoop has published a white paper aimed at raising awareness among manufacturers, retailers, policymakers and the public that recycling can substantially reduce the environmental impact of PVC and increase its sustainable credentials. PVC Recycling Rises but Cooperation Key to Continued Growth The results from the first year of the European PVC value chain' new ten year sustainability initiative, VinylPlus, indicate that the industry is on track to achieve the its sustainability goals for 2020 and recycled over 257,000 tonnes of PVC in 2011.