About DGB E.C.O
Our industry, as with all other industries, sectors and societies all over the world are having to come to terms with climate change. Our production, consumption and transportation of all goods and services are impacting the health of the planet and all that live on it. Fenestration has its part to play along with all others. But where there is challenge, there is opportunity. With DGB E.C.O I want to shine a light on the efforts being made across the sector to be more sustainable and planet-friendly. I also want to demonstrate that in recycling and post-consumer waste, there is a whole new industry being born out of our already long established one.
E.C.O N E W S
PVCu As Part Of The Sustainability Conversation
Martin Benn, Head of New Build at Eurocell, outlines how recycled waste used to produce new high-performing, thermally efficient and aesthetically pleasing [...]
Eurocell Invests Nearly £3million To Support Growth In Fabricator Network
Sponsored news from Eurocell: Eurocell has further demonstrated its commitment to its nationwide network of fabrication partners with significant investment enabling them [...]
Morley Glass Named GGP Installer Awards Finalist For Glass Recycling Service
Sponsored news from Morley Glass: Uni-Blinds® integral blinds manufacturer Morley Glass has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Installer Support Programme or Service [...]
Sustainability Takes A Back Seat Amid The Cost-Of-Living Crisis
In February 2022, a study of 2000 UK homeowners showed that although they cared about sustainable windows and doors, it wasn’t enough [...]
CNC Recycling To Support Building Our Skills
Sponsored news from Building Our Skills: Building Our Skills - Making Fenestration, Glass and Glazing a Career of Choice can now count [...]
Morley Glass Hits 1,000-Tonne Glass Recycling Milestone
Sponsored news from Morley Glass: Uni-Blinds® integral blind manufacturer Morley Glass has saved over 1,000 tonnes of post-consumer glass from going to [...]
£1bn In New Grants For House Insulation Measures, But Nothing For Windows Again
Another Government brings with it another new initiative to try and spur work in insulating the leakiest of Britain's homes. This time, [...]
Government Must Go Further To Insulate Britain
Craig Robertson, Managing Director of Granada Secondary Glazing, the UK’s largest secondary glazing manufacturer, gives his reaction to yesterday’s Autumn Statement. “Whilst [...]
C L O S E D L O O P M A N U F A C T U R I N G
Learn more about closed loop manufacturing, how it can benefit society and find out more about PVCu recycling
Credit: Deceuninck
D I D Y O U K N O W ?
As the industry begins to understand it’s environmental responsibilities, Eurocell went to the public to ask if they knew if PVCu could be recycled.
Credit: Eurocell
T H E P R O C E S S
Find out more about how PVCu is actually recycled and the processes involved to help create new profile.
Credit: Eurocell
O U T O F T H E O C E A N S
This is how the closed-loop recycling process keeps plastic and other post-consumer waste out of the oceans.
Credit: Eurocell
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T H E T R U T H A B O U T P V C U
PVCu
Poly Vinyl Chloride-UnplasticizedThe facts...
PVCu is NOT plastic! Thats what the u (unplasticized) in PVCu stands for. 43% of of the material is Ethylene, which is a bi-product of oil, and represents 0.3% of annual oil consumption. 57% of chloride in Polyvinyl chloride comes indirectly from salt.
Credit: Eurocell
Lifespan of centuries
Material that lasts350 years
PVCu can be recycled up to ten times during the lifespan of the material. Assuming an average generational lifespan of 35 years for PVCu windows and doors, it means the same PVCu can be in active circulation for 350 years, keeping it out of landfill sites for centuries!
Strength
Recycling makes it strongerStronger each time
Dispelling the myth that recycled PVCu isn’t as good as virgin, it has been confirmed in scientific studies that PVCu polymers actually become stronger each time they are recycled. You can find out more about this below.
Safe
Myths dispelledPVCu is safe
PVCu for an unreasonably long amount of time was portrayed in some parts as being dangerous, and as being a material that could contribute to the development of house fires. This has rightly been quashed, and PVCu remains one of the safest, strongest building materials for homes to date.
Sustainability is now the industry’s biggest issue to tackle. More so now than even the skills crisis. The pace of societal change is immense. Every industry on earth is having to very quickly adapt to demonstrate to the general public that it can be more sustainable and friendlier to planet Earth. Our industry is no exception. Across the entire fenestration sector we have to undergo rapid, root and branch evolution if we are to show to the outside world we can be better, and that we can help contribute to the wider global effort of trying to save our planet. Failure to do so, and the consequences will only be catastrophic.
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