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Clients are increasingly looking for window supply partners that can offer maximum thermal performance as well as maximum sustainability. Here, Chris Coxon, Marketing Manager of Eurocell, takes a look at why closed loop PVC-U recycling is best placed to meet both these requirements.

“Windows have a major bearing on the thermal performance of a building, accounting for up to a fifth of all heat loss. It is therefore natural for building designers to look for windows that offer the best thermal performance. As an additional consideration, public sector clients expect their contractors and suppliers to demonstrate sustainable use of materials.

Clients are looking to implement a clear strategy for dealing with end-of-life materials from their refurbishment programmes. That doesn’t just mean PVC-U windows, although this is an important element. All end-of-life products from refurbishments need to enter some form of recycling route simply to reduce the amount of materials going to landfill. That means glass, ceramics and plaster and all the other building materials found on site, yet many of these are actually lagging behind as a result of the work that the PVC-U industry has put into post-consumer recycling.

With first-generation PVC-U windows fitted in the 1980’s now being replaced, local authorities are finding that window suppliers with a clear route for dealing with these end-of-life frames are a huge benefit. We are currently involved on a housing refurbishment project in Nottingham were material from end-of-life PVC-U frames is recycled in our dedicated facility and made into new products for installation back into the same properties. As well as demonstrating closed loop recycling, it provides the client with a solution for dealing with around 100,000 end-of-life frames. The post-consumer recycled material is used to create our PVC-U Thermal Inserts, a window frame component central to improving the energy efficiency of the refurbished properties – in this case by helping to create cost-effective ‘A’ rated windows to replace the old ones.

We have worked hard over the last few years in setting up the closed loop recycling process. The driving force has been the goal of helping window fabricators and contractors demonstrate sustainable use of materials. The BRE (Building Research Establishment) has already recognised the advances made across the industry in terms of recycling when it awarded an ‘A’ rating for sustainability for PVC-U windows (residential) and ‘A+’ for commercial developments in the BRE Green Guide to Specification.

Developing new products that use post-consumer recycled PVC-U has been crucial to making the whole process work. For example, we currently recycle around 6,000 tonnes of PVC-U each year, a high proportion of which is end-of-life PVC-U frames. This material is used to create our PVC-U Thermal Inserts, which improve the thermal performance of the window frame – as we saw on the Nottingham refurbishments. This means fabricators using PVC-U Thermal Inserts can offer clients an ‘A’ rating without the need for expensive glass specifications, providing local authorities with better value for money.

Just how far you can go with improving the thermal performance of a window using recycled material was demonstrated recently when our PVC-U Thermal Inserts helped create an A+14 window specification. This is currently the highest performing double glazed PVC-U window in the UK and offers both refurbishment and new build sectors a cost effective method of achieving the highest Window Energy Rating (WER) possible. For new build residential properties, we have already created a 0.8 U-value window specification which helps meet the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6 - zero carbon properties – required by 2016.

Along with PVC-U Thermal Inserts, Eurocell has for some time used recycled PVC-U to produce cavity closers and these again help improve the thermal performance of buildings by closing cavities in line with Part L requirements. Our own post consumer recycling operation recently achieved a landmark by producing its one millionth metre of profile for our Cavalok cavity closers – currently the only BBA approved post consumer recycled PVC-U cavity closer in the UK.

The effort that the PVC-U industry has put into advances in recycling means that the perception of PVC-U has changed over recent years – end-of-life frames should no longer be viewed as the payback for decades of low maintenance. As we have seen on the Nottingham project, where end-of-life frames were used to create PVC-U Thermal Inserts, this material has a valuable contribution to make in meeting the ever more stringent legislation around thermal performance, as well as beating landfill taxes.

Windows have a significant role to play in the good building design of today, and not simply from an aesthetic point of view. Increasingly, it is what you can’t see that is important and here products made from post-consumer recycled material have a lot to contribute in terms of sustainability. Ultimately, it is the occupants that will benefit from buildings with higher performance, lower running costs and a reduced carbon footprint.”

For more information on the complete range of Eurocell window systems, contact the customers services team on 0800 988 3049 or email press@eurocell.co.uk