Our responsibility

For us, sustainability is much more than just a word. As RE:CORE, we have set ourselves the goal of reducing the consumption of resources in the window construction industry by means of recycling. Our core expertise lies in feeding materials like PVC into a closed material cycle after their service life so that they can be reused. In this way we protect raw material reserves worldwide and help to reduce damage to the climate and environment caused by the extraction of primary resources. We take our responsibility for protecting the planet very seriously because current climate protection plans and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees can only be achieved with a consistent circular economy.

Conserve resources with recycling

Continuing to work predominantly with primary raw materials will lead to shortages in the near future for two main reasons: Firstly, natural reserves are limited. The sources will soon be used up and are not sufficient to supply the entire global population. Secondly, extracting fossil fuels and making them useable requires a great deal of energy and generates a large amount of harmful emissions. The manufacture of PVC, for example, causes 2.03 kg of CO₂e per kg of PVC. The solution for the future therefore has to be recycling, and the switchover to recycled raw materials is essential for our planet as one tonne of recycled PVC saves 2 tonnes of CO₂e. It is very important to us to drive this switchover forwards with everything we have got. That is why we are committed to fighting together with our shareholders REMONDIS and Schüco for more widespread use of the high-quality PVC recycled raw materials that we produce. We believe it is essential for recycled materials to be used in the manufacture of new products and that this is rewarded with building certifications, for example, as an incentive to reduce the consumption of primary raw materials.

The construction industry is going to change

Climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest is the ambitious aim pursued by the “European Green Deal”. And this means that the requirements of future investments and specifications will change significantly for the building sector too – with the main criterion being the carbon footprint of a building. This can be reduced by using recycled materials instead of primary raw materials. And that is precisely where RE:CORE comes in. With our business, we want to close the material cycles for waste windows and profile offcuts from window fabrication to drive forward the circular economy in the building sector and essentially fulfil the Green Deal with recycling.

PVC-U – a raw material with a future

Plastics are used throughout the building sector in the form of windows and doors. Thanks to outstanding thermal insulation properties, new, innovative windows and doors make an important contribution in the building envelope towards saving heating energy and therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And after a standard product life cycle of over 40 years, the used PVC-U is the ideal material for the circular economy. By collecting, sorting and reprocessing it, the recycled PVC-U can be reused up to 7 times with no loss of quality for the end products. By being fed into the circular economy, the PVC raw material has a life cycle of over 280 years as a window. At the same time, recycling results in 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared new PVC – all for the good of our environment. We are committed to this aim and want to use our passion to generate impetus for PVC-U recycling.