A recycling program initiated by the Vinyl Institute of Canada will look to form a blueprint for processing post-consumer polyvinyl chloride (PVC) windows that can be applied in any province.

Named Project Win-Finity, the effort will start with a two-year pilot in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in September, taking used PVC windows from local window installers, breaking down the windows, and separating the vinyl profiles for recycling.

“We want to divert products that are right now going to the landfill and be able to redirect them into a circular economy, and at the very basis of it all, recycle them into new products,” Aiñe Curran, president and CEO of the Niagara Falls, Ont.-based institute, said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada.

The Vinyl Institute of Canada is an advocacy group for the country’s vinyl industry that engages with regulators on environmental issues. It is partnering with Formosa Plastics Corporation, U.S.A., the National Research Council of Canada and Vision Extrusions Group on Project Win-Finity.

Data from Fenestration Canada, an association of the door, windows and glazing industry that is supporting the project, shows vinyl is a popular window material. A report says in 2023, 87 per cent of residential windows shipped were vinyl-based, making up 3.8 million units.

A model for the GTA that can adapt elsewhere

Central to the pilot is figuring out the supply chain for the recycling. Those include steps such as:

• how to best collect the windows;
• redirecting them for deconstruction into their glass, metal and plastic parts;
• removing the PVC profiles;
• redirecting the metal and glass components for recycling or disposal;
• recycling the profiles; and
• ensuring they meet performance standards and weather tests.

The pilot is starting in the GTA as a testing ground for how its model would apply in other high-density municipalities, Curran said. “One of the things we’re trying to do is build a process,” she said, “versus a bricks-and-mortar type of facility.”

The aim is to build a model that can be scaled anywhere in Canada. It could be presented to provinces and municipalities as a framework to be integrated and adapted into their existing recycling infrastructure.

Besides diverting the PVC windows from landfill, the recycling is expected to reduce carbon emissions from production and save money for installers by reducing their transportation needs. Once the pilot is finished, the Vinyl Institute of Canada will get a clearer picture about the possible savings, Curran added.

PVC can be recycled mechanically or chemically multiple times before it degrades to a state where it cannot be further processed. Curran said that can be up to eight times; more in some cases.

The institute's other programs

Other than the PVC window recycling pilot, the Vinyl Institute of Canada has explored other recycling initiatives.

An example Curran gave was a partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada on ensuring tin stabilizer, a compound used to create rigid vinyl, does not leak into local water supplies from manufacturing facilities.

Another is a hospital collection pilot program for medical PVC equipment such as oxygen masks, tubing and intravenous fluid bags. Rather than have such single-use items sent to a landfill, they were recovered and recycled into materials such as insulation. Today, 30 hospitals are registered and in the process of onboarding, Curran said.

Her dream by the end of Project Win-Finity is to have a window made of recycled content installed in her home. She said progress on the on the pilot program will be announced in September.