The Disposal of Old PVC-U Windows

How can PVC be disposed of in an environmentally responsible way?

There is a range of alternative methods available for deriving residual value from used plastics products. The optimal route for a given product will be determined by assessing a combination of environmental, logistical, economic and market considerations. Therefore, the whole range of waste management options should be considered when deciding on the treatment of plastic waste, including PVC-U windows.

Recycling

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The claim that PVC is not recyclable is simply not true. PVC, like all other thermoplastic materials, can be recycled relatively straightforwardly. The primary aim of recycling is to elicit a net environmental benefit through reducing the use of primary resources and/or diverting resources from landfill. The European PVC industry has most definitely achieved real successes in this regard, using the RecoVinyl scheme to co-ordinate the collection and recycling of post consumer PVC building products. It has long been common practice to recover and recycle factory wastes and/or off-cuts after the window has been fabricated. These materials are then incorporated with virgin polymer to produce further long life products including window profiles.

The RecoVinyl Scheme is a European wide initiative to collect and recycle post consumer PVC building products to support the Vinyl 2010 Voluntary Commitment. Consistently, since inception of the scheme the UK has led the way in the volume of PVC collected and recycled in Europe.

Regardless of the materials involved, a potential barrier to cost-effective recycling of post use products is the ability to retrieve, economically, meaningful quantities of used products to supply a recycling scheme with its feedstock. In Germany, PVC-U windows were commercially introduced some twenty years before they were in the UK. Hence, German companies developed technologies to recycle post-use PVC products, which may arise as demolition wastes, for example.

As tonnages of post consumer PVC products inevitably increase, then the European industry will have the technology and infrastructure to recycle them in commercially viable and environmentally beneficial schemes.


Click here to download an overview note on the recycling of PVC.

Incineration

The incineration of PVC need not present any special problems relating to emissions of dioxins. Modern incinerators in Europe are designed to meet stringent EU limits on emissions of a number of substances including dioxins and hydrogen chloride. It should be noted, however, that both of these substances are formed by other materials and not just PVC. Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator

PVC is by no means the only chlorine-containing substance in Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW). Organic materials such as wood, card, paper, textiles and waste foodstuffs, for example, are also capable of forming hydrogen chloride (HCl), as well as other acidic precursors such as oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (SOx and NOx). The flue gas wastes must be treated as hazardous due to the presence of heavy metal components - the vast majority of which come from non-PVC sources. Therefore, the scrubbing and purifying facilities would be required whether PVC was incinerated or not, and so there are no additional capital fixed costs associated with the controlled incineration of PVC, as part of the municipal solid waste stream. However, it is true that the operating costs can vary according to the amount of PVC in the waste stream, but this also depends upon the conditions of incineration and the rate of utilisation on the incineration facility. Based upon studies made and the average content of PVC in MSW, the incremental cost of PVC in the waste stream may amount to 1 - 2% of the total cost of incineration (27). It should be noted, however, that other component materials present in the waste stream also have associated costs.

Click here to download a factsheet on the incineration of PVC.

27. ECVM Briefing, "PVC in Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator", 1997.

Landfill

A study by the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, concluded that rigid PVC does not degrade in landfill (28). PVC-U will remain inert in landfill, and there is no evidence to suggest that PVC-U would be a source of any toxic substances under landfill conditions.

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28. Hjertberg, T. "Degradation of PVC in Landfills - a theoretical evaluation", Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden 1995.