Global responsibility

For over 30 years, VEKA has led the world in environmentally responsible use of PVC-U in building products.

A commitment nearly as old as the industry itself has
seen VEKA leading the way in minimising the environmental impact at every stage of a product’s life, including manufacture, fabrication, energy efficiency in use and eventually recycling

Worldwide, VEKA remains the only PVC-U system supplier ever to invest in a purpose-built recycling plant – the VEKA Umwelttechnik factory at Behringen in Germany.

A major feature of the facility is VEKA’s ‘Closed-loop’ technology – recycling to a suitable grade to make new window frames rather than lower-grade products such as underground drain/sewage pipes. We believe that it can only be true recycling when a window can be made into a window, thus extending the life of a specific product towards a theoretical infinity.

Recently, the company launched VEKA Recycling,
the biggest initiative of its kind in the UK, aimed at collecting and pre-processing post-consumer frames
for recycling at VEKA Umwelttechnik.

• Supported the design of the UK’s first BFRC ‘A’ Rated window and the first fully reinforced, double-glazed window to gain the ‘A’ Rating*
  
• Actively encouraged its fabricators to retain all off-cuts for recycling
  
• Trained all of its personnel in environmental issues
  
• Gained accreditation to ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems Licence No EMS 59308).

*The BFRC (British Fenestration Ratings Council) labelling system is aimed at quantifying a window’s thermal efficiency on a scale from ‘A’ – the most efficient – to ‘G’ clearly displayed on a colour-coded label. The inclusion of factors such as solar gain means that the ‘A’ rated window is energy-positive, that is it can take in more energy from outside than it lets out.

VEKA and Vinyl 2010
a whole-industry vision

VEKA is a wholehearted supporter and active partner of Vinyl 2010, “The voluntary commitment of the PVC industry.” Launched in 2000, the initiative set out a medium-term plan for the global PVC-U industry to reduce the environmental impact of its use in building materials.

VEKA supports the initiative’s principal commitments:

• Compliance with all agreed PVC production emission standards.
  
• A target of halving use of lead stabilisers by 2010 and eliminating them by 2015 (VEKA has been among the pioneers in the development and use of Calcium Organic stabilisers).
  
• To aim to recycle 200,000 tonnes of all post-consumer PVC-U window profile by 2010.
  
• Support for self-funding of research and development into new recycling and recovery technologies.
  
• Establishment of partnerships with public authorities to promote best practice and recycling schemes at local level.

VEKA Umwelttechnik
a unique resource

The VEKA Umwelttechnik factory, at Behringen, Germany, is still the only facility of its kind anywhere in the world, purpose-built to handle window industry waste. Another unique factor is that the facility can – and does – reprocess the PVC-U to a suitable grade to be made into new window frames rather than lower grade end-uses where consistency, aesthetics and light-stability are less of an issue. To VEKA Umwelttechnik, truly recycling a window means just that – turning windows into windows…into windows… into windows!

Using technology first developed for the automotive industry, the facility is able to reprocess not only the PVC-U from post-consumer window frames but also the glass, metal and rubber. The process also segregates different coloured profiles to retain visual purity of the recyclate PVC-U. VEKA Umwelttechnik, launched in 1993 has the capacity to process 50,000 tonnes of post-consumer PVC-U a year, a volume that is expected to increase as VEKA Recycling gathers pace in the UK.