The Facts about the UPVC Industry in the UK

PRLog (Press Release) - Oct 11, 2009 -
The UK UPVC industry has enduring pre-war origins and currently employs approx. 60,000 people across the supply chain, which is spread between large multinationals and SME's. There is an even distribution of these companies, though raw material producers tend to be based in the North-West of England, due to the abundance of natural resources. Consequently, the majority of the UPVC industry supply chain is based in the UK, contributing to the growth of the UK economy at large.

Companies offer rewarding, long-term employment opportunities (including training opportunities), with safe working environments and whose products contribute to good quality homes, through energy efficient windows to the safe transportation of drinking water. Generally, UPVC products are light-weight to install - thus a potential for fewer accidents, but far from just providing the windows and pipes for your property, cabling, ducting, roofline products are usually UPVC. Of course, let's not forget that when you pay for these items, the humble credit card is often made from UPVC!

In terms of environmental sustainability there are common elements in all studies (on UPVC and other materials) consistent with reducing human impact on eco-systems: With world population 6.5 Billion and growing we need to conserve scarce resources and we should minimise ‘human’ land-usage in order to protect biodiversity by giving priority to essential uses (e.g. food crops). To achieve this, we need to minimise or eliminate waste by efficient use of materials and increase recycling rates - something that the UPVC industry within Europe is commited to. Industry is engaged in a voluntary sustainable development programme that goes beyond legal requirements, throught the Vinyl 2010 agreement www.vinyl2010.org

In summary, we can only emphasise the proven performance and environmental credentials which continues to support the use of UPVC in an extremely wide range of applications many of which, in the medical and pharmaceutical fields, and in certain safety critical construction uses, have life-saving capabilities. The benefits of the material are all around us, are rock solid and indisputable and they are thoroughly documented and attested by the application of sound science. The criticisms are, sadly, often lacking in sheer knowledge, intellectual rigour and honesty and are often politically motivated. They provide absolutely no justification for Greenpeace's continuous exhortation to phase out UPVC.

For more information on Double Glazing Windows, Replacement Windows & Doors visit:  http://www.conservatoryoutlet.co.uk or find out more on UPVC at  http://www.pvcaware.org. The PVCaware.org campaign is an initiative from the British Plastics Federation’s Windows Group to promote awareness of the versatility of PVC as a material and also of PVC-U windows.