McLaren Construction is reckoned to be the first UK contractor to deliver closed-loop recycling of window glass at scale . The recycling is on the refurbishment of 644 apartments at the Chalcots Estate in Camden, where window replacements started in February this year.
聽McLaren has established the process with Powerday and Saint-Gobain. Powerday collects and crushes the glass; 聽the resulting cullet (crushed glass) will then be recycled back into window glass manufactured by Saint-Gobain.
Saint-Gobain鈥檚 target is for more than 25% of its glass to be recycled from dismantled buildings (post-consumer cullet) by 2050, while the proportion currently stands at less than 1%.
聽McLaren was awarded the contract for refurbishment of four 23-storey blocks on the Chalcots Estate in January 2022. The works include replacement of 24,000 sq m of cladding and 3,496 windows while around 3,500 residents remain in their homes.
McLaren鈥檚 pre-construction director for facades, Claire Tribe, explained the challenge. 鈥淚n principle, glass is infinitely recyclable,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut we don鈥檛 recycle enough of it and we haven鈥檛 got to grips with the challenges around higher-grade glass.鈥�
She continued: 鈥淭o make new flat glass with recycled material you need to start with good quality flat glass. Recycled bottles don鈥檛 give you the right quality. It鈥檚 not hard to recycle the off-cuts in a factory, but there are extra challenges once the glass has been installed. Windows have to be dismantled and transported without breaking them to avoid any contamination.
鈥淩ecycling window glass at scale in this way is essential to providing manufacturers with a reliable flow of material so that they can commit to high levels of recycled content in new glass. What we have been able to do here is connect the circular economy and create capacity in the UK recycling sector for future construction projects.鈥�
As part of the Chalcots Estate refurbishment, McLaren has engaged Alutrade to take the old aluminium window frames for recycling too.
The refurbishment works are scheduled to be completed in November 2024.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
