Anyone in the Esslingen area who wants to be sure that their old PVC windows, roller shutters or doors are recycled in an ecologically sound way has come to the right address at the disposal company Scherrieble. Last year, the company was able to collect a total of 1,316 tonnes and send them for material recycling. The company does not only focus on the disposal of large construction sites, as Anette Seitzinger, material flow manager at Scherrieble, emphasises: "Anyone in the region who would rather have old plastic windows recycled instead of incinerated is always welcome at our company. Whether it's one, a hundred or even more windows, we accept the material, collect it and bundle it for further processing in a recycling plant."
Great commitment to sustainable management, which has not escaped the attention of Rewindo. The company has been organising the recycling of old plastic windows, roller shutters and doors throughout Germany since 2002 and has now officially listed Scherrieble as one of its collection points for small quantities. "Recycling thrives on participation. Smaller quantities of less than ten windows will also become increasingly important for the continuous increase of our recycling quantities. That's why we welcome the fact that waste management companies like Scherrieble show such great commitment to the recycling idea and also accept small quantities," says Rewindo Managing Director Michael Vetter. With the collection points for very small quantities, Rewindo wants to offer a solution to all those who cannot or do not want to store smaller quantities of old windows. The collection points complement the existing nationwide collection service and are aimed in particular at installation teams and smaller tradesmen's businesses. Currently, 25 disposal companies are listed, and more are being sought.
In practice, the old plastic windows from Esslingen finally reach the modern recycling plant of Rewindo's long-standing recycling partner Dekura GmbH in Höxter, Westphalia, where they are first shredded. Afterwards, different processes are used to separate glass, metals and plastics by type. While glass, metals and other materials are passed on to other recyclers for reprocessing, the largest fraction by far, the plastic PVC, is recycled directly on site. High-quality PVC granulate is produced. In new window profiles, the regranulate, coated with new PVC material, can then be found as a recyclate core. A process that can be repeated at least seven times. Extremely sustainable in terms of resource conservation, the recycling process also helps to avoid greenhouse gases, as Jörg Schiffner from Dekura reports: "Compared to the production of primary PVC, we can save over 89 percent greenhouse gases in some cases with our process". The old windows collected by Scherrieble then also contribute to this - with a saving of exactly 2,585,545 kilograms of CO2 emissions in 2017. Dekura has even certified this to the Esslingen-based company.