Circular Econony : Austrotherm launches recycling project with XPS insulation material

Austrotherm is now offering free collection and return of Austrotherm XPS construction site offcuts in Austria. This saves customers disposal costs and conserves resources. Specifically, Austrotherm recycles clean Austrotherm XPS building site offcuts from current production, which are produced when cutting and fitting the boards on the building site. Clean means without foreign materials such as adhesives, soil or other impurities. XPS material originating from demolition sites is not accepted.

Klaus Haberfellner, Managing Director of the Austrotherm Group, intends to offer the service in other countries if it proves successful, he tells WMW: "We have only just started this project throughout Austria, and will be gathering experience over the coming months. In addition to Austria, Austrotherm also produces XPS in Germany, Romania and Serbia. Once we have gained sufficient experience, we are naturally thinking of rolling out this closed-loop project in other countries as well."

After a regional pilot was very well received, Austrotherm decided to roll out this recycling service throughout Austria together with logistics partners for the construction industry. "Our XPS boards are ideally suited for recycling and can be returned to the production process - enabling us to reduce CO2 emissions and resource consumption. We are thus taking a step towards a circular economy," says Heimo Pascher, technical managing director of Austrotherm Austria.

The high-quality XPS building site offcuts are not sent for thermal recycling, as was previously the case, but are crushed, ground and processed in a crusher at the Purbach plant in the same way as production-related offcuts. The granules are reprocessed into XPS insulation material.