SUSTAINABILITY
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE T
Anthony Barnett, technical marketing manager at Armacell, looks at how advances in recycling now provide merchants with more choice in the insulation category.
he UK is leading the world in its adoption of sustainable building materials and the insulation industry is making sure it is part of this with environmentally-friendly alternatives now widely available. Some of these such as our pipe supports are made from 100% recycled PET that comes from old plastic bottles. In fact we have just recycled our 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) PET plastic bottle since 2010, which equates to over 110 million plastic bottles recycled each year.
It’s worth bearing in mind, too, that the energy consumption during production of these recycled products is usually less than in the production of conventional materials, which has a positive effect on the environmental footprint in other ways. PET from recycled plastic bottles is an extremely environmentally friendly material with a low thermal conductivity and a high compressive strength. The PET segments can be completely recycled at the end of their service life, with all production scrap flowing back into new PET blocks. PET also has an excellent environmental performance requiring over 60 percent less energy for its production than PUR, and releasing over 80 percent less CO2. Just as importantly, these recycled insulation materials offer the same thermal and mechanical performance as using virgin material.
100% recycled PET
We were the first to develop technology that enabled foam cores to be made from 100% recycled PET (r-PET). Today, our entire PET foam product portfolio is based on this process technology and what’s more startling is that we are able to use recycled PET bottles that are rejected for re-use by the PET recycling industry. This process converts waste material into a high-quality insulation that is fed back into the production cycle. A common application for this type of recycled material is pipe supports which are able to help your customers avoid a potential trouble spot in domestic, refrigeration and air-conditioning applications. In these situations, it may be necessary to support pipework through ducting or above ceilings. There is always
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redevelopment includes 63 new luxury residential apartments and nine mews properties.
If the brackets hadn’t been insulated the extent of energy loss could have been significant with thermal heat flow calculations for a 60°C hot water pipe in continual use showing a heat loss of 0.06 w/k per bracket on a 26.9mm diameter copper pipe. This would have had an adverse effect on total energy costs, as well as increasing its carbon footprint.
the temptation for your customer to use pipe support brackets without insulation, which can cause significant energy loss, or incorrectly specified brackets that compress the pipe insulation, again compromising the performance of the system. In addition, direct fixing of cold services pipework to their mounting brackets acts as a thermal bridge from surrounding warmer ambient air. Since these uninsulated supports on chilled water and refrigeration pipework fall below the dew point, moisture is continually drawn to the cold brackets where it condenses into the adjoining insulation material. If the condensation spreads through the insulation, thermal efficiency is lost and corrosion and consequential secondary damage will result. The cost of uninsulated pipe support brackets can be significant. For example, if your customer chooses our Armafix Ecolight supports, along with the equivalent insulation tube thickness, the annual energy efficiency savings of both hot and cold pipework is in the region of £2.50 to £5 per bracket. This quickly adds up when you consider that a pipework system in a large installation may incorporate hundreds of pipe supports, ensuring rapid payback for their client.
We recently supplied our recycled pipe supports to the £185m Regent’s Crescent luxury development in London. The
Green-minded customers Insulated pipe supports play an important role in maintaining system efficiency and integrity; thermally isolating the pipe from its fixing is the best way of ensuring optimum performance. An integrated approach, where the insulation material and insulated pipe supports are from a single source offers greater compatibility in terms of condensation control, fire behaviour, energy saving and ease of installation. By doing this specifiers and installers can ensure the efficiency of the system whilst providing their customer with long term low maintenance. A growing number of plumbing installers are also seeking sustainable building materials and this is being driven in part by changing attitudes from clients and a willingness to ask the installer whether the products they use are made from recycled material. On the other side of the equation, legislators are driving the market with a range of environmental certification schemes already in place.
As a result more customers visiting merchants’ branches will be looking for technical support and guidance on choosing sustainable products. It’s worth remembering, though, that offering recycled material isn’t a complicated sale - most installers get the fact that we all need to make environmental choices. That means offering insulation materials made from recycled content could even boost the standing of a branch.
With climate change now on everyone’s agenda, recycled products provide building solutions that reduce carbon emissions and promote better climate resilience. Recycling 1,000,000,000 plastic bottles is something that we’re proud of and as eco-friendly homes go mainstream it is just one example of how we are helping merchant customers meet demand for ‘green’ product. BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net September 2019
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