Work on the residential complex Alte Apotheke\/corner of Schmittgasse in the Cologne district of Z\u00fcndorf is now in its final stages. As part of an energy-efficient refurbishment of the building, which was constructed at the beginning of the 1980s, around 600 disused PVC windows are being replaced with new, highly heat-insulating plastic windows with modern GEALAN profiles from the window manufacturer Meeth in Wittlich. What is special about this KfW-supported project, however, is that the owners of the total of 88 flats not only benefit from developments in the profile sector, but in the end even become raw material suppliers for window production themselves.<\/p>\n
This is because the old plastic windows do not end up in the waste incinerator. Instead, the windows are recycled and PVC raw material is recovered from them, which can easily be used again in the production of new windows. The old Z\u00fcndorf windows are thus turned into new ones. The idea of recovering raw materials was initiated by the installation company Sesterhenn GmbH & Co. KG from M\u00fclheim-K\u00e4rlich, a family business that can now look back on 125 years of company tradition. The expertise not only convinced the flat owners, represented by quick immobilien Verwaltungs GmbH from Cologne. Axel Klein from the architectural office rix2, responsible for planning and construction management, was also impressed by the urban mining in Cologne-Z\u00fcndorf: \"We didn't know about the possibility of recycling plastic windows before. This is active environmental protection and, by the way, also at good conditions. A solution that we will recommend to others.<\/p>\n
The recycling of old plastic windows, shutters and doors in Germany is organised by Rewindo GmbH, Fenster-Recycling-Service, based in Bonn, which provides a nationwide collection service with its recycling partners. In addition, owners of smaller quantities of old windows want to have easier access to the system: \"For all those who cannot or do not want to store smaller quantities of old windows, we are currently setting up a collection network for very small quantities. We are already well positioned here in the Rhineland. So if one or the other family home is to be renovated here in Z\u00fcndorf, we have a solution ready for that too,\" says Rewindo managing director Michael Vetter.<\/p>\n
The old windows from the current project are first taken over by Rewindo's logistics partner Biotrans GmbH from Schwerte. After removal, they are prefabricated there for the most efficient recycling process possible. After devitrification, metals and other materials are separated from the plastic and passed on to recyclers for reprocessing. By far the largest fraction, the PVC material, is finally delivered pre-crushed to the recycling experts at VEKA Umwelttechnik GmbH in H\u00f6rselberg-Hainich, where it is finally materially recycled in a modern recycling plant. The result is a PVC regrind that is used as a starting material for high-quality granulate.<\/p>\n
In the new window profiles, the recovered raw material can be found as a recycled core, which is sheathed on the outside with new PVC material. All the recognised advantages of vinyl windows, such as durability, stability, low maintenance, diverse design options and high recyclability, are retained in the recycled profile. In terms of technology and building physics, the recycled profiles are just as good as new, and they also help to avoid harmful greenhouse gases. For example, each tonne of PVC recyclate used in profile production saves around 1.87 tonnes of CO2 compared to primary PVC. The use of recycled profiles is now standard and the market for plastic windows with recycled cores is growing steadily. So it is quite possible that the Z\u00fcndorf raw material will soon be found in a new GEALAN profile.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In den letzten Z\u00fcgen liegen mittlerweile die Arbeiten am Wohnkomplex Alte Apotheke\/Ecke Schmittgasse im K\u00f6lner Stadtteil Z\u00fcndorf. Im Rahmen einer energetischen Sanierung des Anfang der 1980er Jahre errichteten Geb\u00e4udes werden etwa 600 ausgediente PVC-Fenster gegen neue hochw\u00e4rmed\u00e4mmende Kunststofffenster mit modernen GEALAN-Profilen des Fensterbauers Meeth aus Wittlich ausgetauscht. Das Besondere bei diesem von der KfW gef\u00f6rderten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,49,24,50,10,51],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-gealan","tag-koeln","tag-pvc-altfensterrecycling","tag-pvc-mahlgut","tag-rewindo","tag-veka-umwelttechnik-gmbh"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvcrecyclingfinder.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}