Money For Old Frames

Eurocell have just opened their £3 million brand spanking new recycling centre in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The facility is capable of processing 12,000 post consumer waste frames per week, adding up to an impressive 624,000 frames per year. This massive new operation put them at the forefront of PVCu recycling in the UK.

In an industry which is battling against fluctuating commodity prices and constant price increases, recycling could be a bit of a magic bullet. 

If a manufacturer can count on the majority of it's PVCu raw material coming from a post consumer waste plant on site, rather than buying in new lengths all the time, then the amount of money that could be saved over time would be immeasurable. And I'm sure a massive relief on what would probably be a very strained profit margin. It would give that company more of a freedom on how it wants to run it's manufacturing process, and give them more of a say on the type of product it wants to produce and sell.

The environmental benefits are also enormous. Saving 624,000 frames from going in a hole in the ground will have a big impact. Now if every major supplier and manufacturer did the same, imagine the many millions of frames not going to landfill. Then imagine all that extra material which could be used to make brand new windows without having to waste money buying new materials!

There is also a huge commercial and advertising opportunity. Recent research has revealed that a fifth of consumers would be prepared to spend around 10% more for a sustainable and 'greener' product, and 60% of people want to buy from an 'environmentally responsible' company. So pushing the green ethics of your business and overhauling your recycling commitments has never been so important! Green is cool!

It's PVCu, But Not As We Know It!

PVCu recycling has been around in the industry for a few years now. Some post consumer waste goes towards being made into things such as insulation and other similar things. Some post consumer waste goes back into making new PVCu frames. 


So what direction does the industry need to take when it becomes too expensive and over-resourceful to make PVCu from oil?


This is a question that may need to be answered quite soon. The price of oil over the next 5 years is only going to go up, which will obviously have an impact on the cost of the polymers and in turn the PVCu raw material. I don't think our industry could cope with many more increases right now. The way I see it there are two roads to go down.


The first would be produce the polymers we need from sustainable crops used for oil (more like the cooking kind). This would have a manufacturing advantage as we would be able to produce what we needed here, rather than import a lot of it from the Far East. Jobs will would be created and local economies would be boosted. The downside to this however is that there isn't enough of the crops for this to fully sustain our £4 billion industry. And remember, PVC is used in a plethora of other industries, not just ours. The crops we have at the moment just won't be able to meet the demand. Planting numerous amounts of new fields of the stuff isn't a viable option either.


The second option then is to focus more on recycling the old PVC windows and doors we take out. More and more installations over the last few years have involved taking out old, tired PVC windows and doors. Rather than these going to landfill via our skip companies, these need to be taken to specialist recycling plants, preferably run and owned by the systems companies so that the right people with the right expertise can do this properly and as efficiently as possible. Installers then save lots on the cost of skips, landfill isn't used as much and so the environment benefits. But what need to consider is the public's appetite for 're-used' windows. Some people don't like the idea of used cars, so they buy new ones because they know there is far less a likelihood for things to go wrong. I know recycled windows go through a complete meltdown and are reproduced, but we would need to make sure that the public doesn't get stuck with that 'used' and 'cheap' image. But then there is the problem of meeting the demand for the whole industry. We simply don't recycle enough, or will probably never do so in the future, windows and doors to cope with the whole replacement and new build markets. And if our industry is to continue to grow, meeting that demand is going to become even harder. 


Therefore, we arrive at a problem. We have to position the industry ready for a time without oil. With these being probably the two most viable options right now to replace the need for oil, we have to come up with a way of effectively incorporating the two techniques to make that transition. If we can, then our manufacturing industry in this country could stand to benefit from billions of extra investment and massive job creation. If we could make sure that all this happens in this country, then we could also wean ourselves off the need for foreign imports. 

Now's The Time To Start Recycling

If you haven't already heard, skip costs are set to jump a further 20% from Friday 1st April. Unfortunately this is not an April fools joke!


The costs are rising because of annually increasing rates on landfill tax, and will continue to rise until 2014. The theory behind the rises is to try to wean the British population off just throwing everything away, and to try to get everyone recycling as much as they can.


So, if you're still putting your post consumer waste in the skip, instead of having it recycled, now is the time to start! Our skip costs have significantly reduced as we have all our PVCu, timber and aluminium frames recycled. These materials used to be the biggest contributors to using up skip space, but now they are being put to better uses.

PVCu Recycling Market

The residual effect of an expanding 2nd and 3rd generation replacement window market is the creation of a potentially huge PVCu recycling sector.


Companies like Veka and Ecoplas have put some real effort into getting set up to cope with the influx of this increasing market. And it's good for the industry too. Us installers get to drone on about our green credentials to customers. Manufacturing costs should in theory become lower as profilers don't have to buy in brand new materials. Companies like Veka and Ecoplas can also stand to make money out of it as chopped up PVCu can be used for many other purposes.


The problem is the amount companies pay for old PVCu windows. I know that Ecoplas only pay £60 per tonne for people to bring in their old windows and doors. If there is 3 tonnes that's £180. But by the time you've taken petrol/diesel money off and labour for loading the frames onto transport and getting it to the plant, it hardly seems worth it. For people to send in their old PVCu they need to be paying about £100 per tonne for it to seem worth it.


Barring the cost issue, there is plenty of scope in this new industry for companies to make decent money out of recycling.

More Recycling Equals Less Skips

Last week, when hoarding over 250 post-consumer PVCu frames into an Ecoplas big green skip, it hit me how much we are saving on skips.

If we weren't doing all the recycling we are doing now, we would still be using way too many skips for our own good. In fact we're now probably using over 50% less skips than we were a year ago. This is obviously saving us plenty on skip hire. LSS Skips won't be too happy, but I'm sure Ecoplas will be, and our accountant too.

Recycling PVCu isn't the only thing we do. All the old aluminium frames we take out get de-glazed and taken to a scrap merchants to redeem a bit of cash. Again, not filling our skips, and making the most of the material we remove. Helps pay for the Christmas do at the end of the year too!

The only thing I think we are guilty of is our use of paper. We use a lot of paper, and we have massive stacks of old industry magazines that we can't just throw away. We need a few of those green paper recycling bins. The amount of paper we just throw in the bin is criminal. I think I might appoint myself our Environmental Officer!

Will Customer's Want Recycled PVCu?

There is going to be a point where old PVCu windows and doors may become 2nd generation PVCu windows and doors through recycling. Obviously, not all PVCu that gets removed will become the same product again. But as more and more recycled PVCu weaves it's way into everyday life, and the more the production of PVCu is going to be made from sustainable sources, will customers want something new, which isn't actaully new?

Recycled products still have a bit of a grotty image, admittedly I wouldn't buy something that is recycled, purely because it isn't new. Short minded I know, but this may be one of the obstacles the industry will have to overcome. In five years time the industry's reliance on oil is going to cripple it, and unless we move away from producing polymers the way we do now, we are going to have problems.

The way we sell windows, doors and conservatories is changing, more and more so every year. With every year that passes, the more emphasis is put on sustainability and energy efficiency. And with every year that passes, the more customers are tuned in to the environmental cause. As an industry we are going to have to adapt to these changes. Companies are going to have to show off the best they can all their green credentials, be it in the product or how they operate as a company. This is how we can get round the recycling issue. If customers can feel like they are doing their bit, whilst at the same time lowering their energy bills, they won't mind as much how or what their new windows are made from.

October is going to be the first major forced change, it will be interesting to see how those who haven't adapted manage to survive in what is going to be one of the most environmentally centred industries.