INDUSTRYNEWS
Europe ’ s most advanced PVC-U recycling plant has gone live , and it ’ s here in the UK
A little over two years ago VEKA Recycling Ltd , a division of the world ’ s largest PVC-U window profile manufacturer , chose the location for what has become an exercise in state-of-the-art sustainability . What the 6-acre VEKA Recycling site achieves so well , is to turn old PVC-U windows into a highly sustainable commodity that has a lifetime serving as whatever it is turned into , of 300 years and more . And the Wellingborough plant does it more efficiently than any other in Europe and , with an educated guess , in the World .
» WITH AN ULTIMATE INVESTMENT of £ 15 million the Wellingborough plant will be the third such facility to be built by VEKA Umwelttechnik GmbH , the specialist recycling subsidiary of the VEKA AG Group , of which VEKA Recycling Ltd is a wholly owned division . The company has pioneered PVC-U recycling in Europe with its first plant opening in Behringen , Germany as long ago as 1993 . A further facility was opened in France in 2006 .
The latest facility enables VEKA Recycling to fully re-process PVC-U window and door frames into material that is re-manufactured increasingly as new window profiles , cills and trims and also a range of products as diverse as cable management and construction materials and components . Around 60 new jobs have been created at the plant .
For anyone that has yet to witness the process , it is one in which old PVC-U frames , just as they have been removed from the house complete with hardware , gaskets and reinforcement , are craned on to a conveyor to emerge an hour or so later as pure , high quality PVC-U pellet , particles of various metals , and rubber crumb . Impurities are removed by a series of extraordinary processes along the way that have been refined by VEKA Recycling ’ s engineers to justify the ‘ worlds most advanced ’ epithet .
Managing Director of VEKA Recycling Simon Scholes has earned himself a place amongst a small elite ; such projects are remarkably few and far between . But Simon is driven by more than simply completing the project : “ Whilst other plastic products are coming under fire , the recycling of old windows in the UK is very advanced . Completion of the new plant allows us to take and reprocess even more and completely within the UK ; we are now self-sufficient , something that is quite rare and especially important now that we no longer have open borders with mainland Europe .”
VEKA Recycling collects old windows as well as virgin offcuts in a fleet of 10 collection vehicles , five of which utilise their own lift truck , which travel the country collecting the material from installers and for virgin material , fabricators . Geography is not an issue – the firm collects from Scotland to Cornwall and everywhere in between .
But as good as the recycling of PVC-U frames is in the UK , it is important , says Simon , that what he estimates as around 20 % of removed windows being unaccounted for , are traced and also fed into the system for re-manufacture : “ As an industry we are good at recycling PVC-U , but we must work towards having the confidence that every window and door removed will be made into something
brand new ,” he says . “ Much of the drive to achieve this will come from homeowners who will be influenced by knowing what is happening to the windows being removed from their homes . Retail installers will add an extra USP to their sales and marketing by showing potential customers that they are responsible not just in what they are installing , but what they are removing . We will be supporting our customers to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability during the next few months .”
The purity of the finished product is crucial to Simon ’ s other passion , to raise the image of both PVC-U recycling generally but specifically amongst extruders : “ We must stop looking at this material as ‘ second hand ’. Technically , recycled PVC-U polymer performs as well as virgin material . It is an incredibly important resource and , in line with established industries in which sustainability is advanced by products not only being recycled , but actually manufactured with their future recyclability in mind , we will also benefit from demonstrating such a commitment .”
VEKA Recycling ’ s Neilson Road , Wellingborough plant , is compelling proof of one company ’ s commitment towards that goal .
www . veka-recycling . co . uk
14 » JAN 2021 » CLEARVIEW-UK . COM