Ecological balance sheet — good grades for materials recycling

Recycling is not an end in itself.

For recycling to be worthwhile, steps must be taken to ensure that the ecological profits of the production process are greater that the energy required for this process.

For this reason, the company PDR, which specialises in recycling PU foam cans, drew up an ecological balance sheet in 2012 that compared the various recycling possibilities for PU foam cans. The result is clear: from an ecological point of view, material-based recycling is the best solution for the environment.

Burn or reuse?

The ecological balance sheet was drawn up by the company PE International AG that specialises in lifecycle analyses. The experts compared conventional recycling procedures for spent PU foam cans with the PDR recycling system. Whilst the first approach only recycles the material used in the packaging and applies a thermal process on the residual constituents, PDR is able to not only recover metal parts, but also the residual constituents as well.

The study shows: the PDR procedure achieves the highest possible energy and raw materials savings as part of a sustainable closed substance cycle.