Certified for sustainability at European level

For over 30 years, GEALAN has been committed to sustainability, resource and energy efficiency and the recycling of PVC products.

The long service life of the products, especially in high-quality construction applications such as window profiles, as well as the use of recycled materials play an important role in this. In addition, the materials used are no longer separated in highly specialised companies and sent for recycling through nationwide collection systems. This saves cash money. In this way GEALAN, as a family-run business, is making a contribution to a future worth living.

In the coming years, a large number of old windows will be required as part of measures for the energy-efficient renovation of buildings. Here recycling has priority over incineration. This principle is one of the guiding principles of VinylPlus®. As a voluntary commitment of the European PVC industry to sustainable business, the initiative sets concrete recycling targets and actively supports the sustainability goals of the European PVC industry. Under this Voluntary Commitment, almost 740,000 tonnes of PVC were recycled in 2018. This represents an increase of 15.6% compared to the previous year. This means that 92.4% of the 2020 target has already been reached.

How does recycling work at GEALAN? Start-up and scrap profiles are sorted, seals and colour coatings such as acrylcolor and decorative film are separated. The sections are shredded and further crushed, then ground. White and coloured profiles are ground separately. The resulting granulate is heated and pressed through a filter to separate out any remaining foreign particles. The pure PVC recovered in the process is finally the starting material for new plastic windows with a recyclate core.