Make a PVC-U Recycling Resolution for 2023

Traditionally, February is the month in which we reflect upon the abandoned resolutions we may have earnestly embraced at the beginning of the year. But it’s not too late to create new solutions for adopting PVC-U recycling, an activity that brings clear benefits at every level of the home improvement supply chain.

Homeowners are compelled to recycle their household waste, and as a matter of routine, we separate packaging plastics, glass, cardboard and so forth from non-recyclable waste and, of course, food waste. In our daily lives, we are increasingly subjected to messages about sustainability, including the recyclability and recycled content of many consumer products. Homeowners will appreciate knowing that their old plastic frames will be disposed of sustainably.

Promoting PVC-U as a valuable recyclable resource will not only reassure your customers that their old windows have value but that their new PVC-U windows if that is what they have chosen, are also sustainable. When price and product differentials have been exhausted, sales can be closed by promoting that a homeowner’s old PVC-U windows and doors will be removed and recycled to begin a new journey as brand-new building materials, air conditioning components and, increasingly, new window and door frames.

The financial benefits are tangible for installation businesses: disposal costs can be reduced significantly by returning old PVC-U window and door frames to any of the increasing numbers of frame fabricators that are setting up collection hubs for their installer customers. For larger volumes, arrangements may even be made directly with VEKA Recycling. It’s another problem solved for busy installers.

The chances are that virgin profile offcuts resulting from the frame fabrication process will be collected, probably by the supplying systems company. But by offering installer customers a collection service for their old frames, or at least a hub with bins into which they may drop their post-consumer frames when they pick up the new ones, fabricators can extend their service offer to installers in a most tangible way.

VEKA Recycling has equipped fabricators all over the UK with specially designed bins for collecting PVC-U frames which we pick up regularly. In addition, we also have a network of specialist waste contractors from where old frames are returned directly to our facility for processing. It’s a very efficient arrangement.

Installers and fabricators should be careful to use credible and authentic recycling companies to collect old frames and process them. There are strict laws and moral codes that should be kept when disposing of old frames, and care should be taken only to use bona fide waste contractors or well-known brands that have established track records and legally approved audit trails. Waste that is dumped illegally can be traced back and may result in prosecution and, perhaps even worse, public shaming for the installer, fabricator and even the homeowner, all of which will do immense damage to a brand.

By dealing directly with an end-to-end recycler such as VEKA Recycling, you can be sure that post-consumer products are taking the most efficient route to repurpose. Homeowners, installers and fabricators can be confident that the products taken away for recycling will not have taken unnecessary journeys, handling, or processing before completing the chain of custody back into brand new products.

VEKA Recycling pioneered PVC-U recycling, with its first plant built in 1993 in Germany. In the UK, we process post-consumer frames and virgin material at Europe’s most advanced window and door frame recycling site in Wellingborough, where we guarantee that recycling standards and legal guidelines will be upheld at every stage.

We, therefore, have immense experience with which we can advise on how to begin your recycling journey or improve the one you are on. After 30 years of recycling PVC-U, we are as passionate as we have ever been.