IT’S NOT PLASTIC!
uPVC (unplasticised PolyVinyl Chloride) was the term used in Britain before the name was changed to PVCu in the late 1980s to fall in line with Europe.
However, many people assume that uPVC and PVCu refers to different materials - they are in fact the same!
With environmental issues being at the forefront of today’s media it is very easy to confuse modern PVCu windows with the damaging, non-degradeable plastics so abundant in everyday life.
RECYCLING PVCu
PVCu can be recycled repeatedly up to 8 times.
Depending on the application, because the recycling process does not measurably decrease the chain length of the polymers. The European industry has been working very hard to boost collection of PVCu waste and the ability to optimise recycling technologies.
ALUMINIUM
Aluminium does not age like other organic materials and needs no protection from ultra-violet light.
Its overall life-cycle is more environmentally friendly due to the minimum energy required in maintenance.
The well established, proven design life of aluminium assures that it will provide a long term solution year-on-year with the guarantee of 100% recyclability at the end of a building’s life.
RECYCLING ALUMINIUM
- Recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy than producing aluminium from raw materials.
- It also saves 97% of green house gas emissions produced in the primary production process.
- Recycling 1 tonne of aluminium saves 9 tonnes of CO2 emissions and 4 tonnes of bauxite – the raw material from which aluminium is made.
- 1 tonne of CO2 is equivalent to driving over 3,000 miles.
- The metal is a permanently available resource. It is 100 per cent recyclable, for ever, so carbon savings increase every time it passes through the recycling loop.