Circular economy promoted
Veka Group’s 30-year commitment to PVCU recycling has culminated in regular deliveries of recycled PVCU pellet to sister company Veka.
Tanker deliveries of high-quality recycled pellet to Veka’s Burnley plant mark the latest phase of the group’s commitment to the promotion of PVCU as a sustainable material, with the completion of Veka Recycling’s state-of-the-art facility in Wellingborough at the end of last year, the company has reported.
Deliveries by tanker allow 26 tonnes of high-grade PVCU pellet – enough to provide 75% recycled content for 27,500m of profile – to be transferred at each end of the journey in less than a couple of hours, with as many as three deliveries per week.
The process is considerably quicker than the alternative delivery method of one-tonne bags that are lifted on and off the delivery vehicle by forklift truck.
“The completion of our Wellingborough plant enables us to supply our sister company in Burnley, not simply due to the availability of high volumes of recycled material, but also because the quality satisfies Veka’s exacting standards for quality,” Veka Recycling’s managing director Simon Scholes.
“Although we are both part of the Veka dynasty, we have not been given the automatic right to supply Burnley. We had to demonstrate an ability to supply high volumes of the finest quality material, on a regular basis. There was never any question of a silver spoon.”
Veka MD Neil Evans said that the completion of the Wellingborough plant, followed by strenuous trials, enabled his company to honour its commitment to the inclusion of higher levels of recyclate in its products.
“This commitment is contained in our latest corporate social responsibility manifesto published in 2021, which details our commitment to sustainability in every aspect of our business. I am delighted that our sister company has been able to open as scheduled despite the difficulties of building the plant during the pandemic, and also that the quality and volumes are to our very exacting standards at Burnley.”
Veka Recycling continues to supply other established customers with recycled material, including manufacturers of electrical conduit, air conditioning ducting and other building materials.
“Veka PLC has become an important customer, together with others with whom we have traded for many years,” Simon said. “But it feels very special to see end-of-life window and door profiles being re-manufactured into new frames.”
Veka Recycling has also launched a new video that shows how its recycling processing facility transforms end-of-life PVCU frames into the recyclate that new windows and doors are made from.
“We are immensely proud of what we have built here,” Simon said. “After our plans to show people round were severely curtailed by Covid we decided to make this video, to ensure we can show the importance of recycling old PVCU window and door frames, and how efficient our new plant is at doing so.
