Recycling Appeal

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In the current skills shortage, the fenestration industry should leverage its environmental credentials to attract new entrants writes Ian Ward of CNC Recycling.

CNC is collaborating with Building Our Skills in its Making Fenestration, Glass and Glazing a Career of Choice campaign.

There are many potential new employees for the fenestration industry who want their career choice to do something positive for the environment. In particular, this applies to the younger generation. We took an active role in the Building Our Skills’ industry-bespoke careers festivals earlier in the year and were blown away by the level of interest we received from youngsters telling us exactly this.

They simply didn’t know that landfill has been replaced by recycling and that the main players in the PVC-U window industry take minimising its environmental impact so seriously.

With approximately 84% of all new windows fitted in the UK being PVC-U, they could see that this is very important. By the end of their visits, youngsters and teachers alike had gained a clearer insight into this aspect of the industry. They went away with a far more positive view of it from an environmental perspective.

 

Making a good impression

I’m not saying that new recruits would necessarily want to work in the recycling sector, simply that they are far more likely to pick the fenestration industry for employment if they do not have negative or incorrect preconceptions about its environmental credentials.

We will be continuing this work at next year’s BOS careers festivals too and I hope that industry employers get on board with promoting fenestration as a good move for anyone wanting a career in an industry doing its best for the environment.

 

In agreement

I recently spoke to Mark Handley who is partnerships manager of Building Our Skills. He told me: “When youngsters are asked to list the issue that they are most motivated by, they usually talk about the environment. For example, the schools’ initiative called the Pupils’ Parliament, bears this out. So, we are completely in agreement with CNC Recycling when it comes to making this topic a tool for attracting newcomers into the fenestration industry. Let’s really make some noise about this aspect of it. The work that CNC Recycling and others do provides a very helpful backdrop to this whole topic.”

 

CNC Recycling

CNC Recycling is a Middlesborough based organisation, which operates on a nationwide basis. We collect thousands of tonnes of old PVC-U windows and doors from installers and fabricators across the UK every year. This enables recycled materials to be fed back into the supply chain as a valuable secondary raw material to produce new windows and doors. The company collects over 1 million windows each year. Over the last eighteen months we have collected from 1,289 window companies nationally. It has been proved that PVC-U, due to its thermoplastic nature, can be recycled nine times without any significant loss of performance according to the EPPA, which is the European trade association for PVC-U window system suppliers with its seat in Brussels. It represents the PVC-U profile industry across Europe

 

Closed loop

Over the past twelve months CNC Recycling has invested approximately £2m in state-of-the-art equipment to improve the process efficiency of its closed-loop system. Closed loop refers to the no-wastage aspect of the process, which enables all parts of old PVC-U windows and doors, including metal and rubber parts, to be re-used. The new sorting and separating equipment recovers clean white and ‘jazz’ (coloured) post-industrial and post-consumer PVC-U. This recovered PVCU is now ready for further processing within the fenestration industry and reintroduced into the core of new profile.

 

Picture: The fact that the PVC-U window industry does a vast amount of recycling is an attractive aspect for young people considering their job opportunities.

www.buildingourskills.co.uk

Article written by Brian Shillibeer
25th November 2024

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