Vinyl siding is designed for recyclability, and you can help fulfill its lifecycle. When you recycle vinyl siding, it goes back into the manufacturing process, where it’s ground down and reused to create new products—including piping, decking, flooring and even more vinyl siding. It’s all part of our more than 50-year commitment to eliminate waste. By making it easy to recycle vinyl siding, everyone can participate in the sustainable lifecycle—including you.
PEPA is committed to making it even easier to recycle polymeric exterior products. Through our Revinylize™ Recycling Collaborative, we’re giving more communities across the country access to convenient recycling locations for these materials.
Clean your vinyl siding remnants of dirt and remove fasteners. Click here to learn more about the do's and don'ts of recycling vinyl siding.
Services at recycling centers vary, so check in advance for requirements. Load scraps into truck bed and deliver to recycling facility or haul to curb for pickup (check with your local waste municipality first).
Scrap is ground into fine granules, which can be melted down to create new products.
Manufacturers and brokers purchase recycled plastic to make cladding, decking, flooring and more.
Helping to complete the vinyl siding lifecycle can be as simple as making a call. Whether you’re a homeowner updating your exterior or a professional remodeler, you can recycle all used, unused and new vinyl siding from your job.
Arrange for pick-up or drop-off to the local recycling center or vinyl siding distributor. Please call in advance – recycling services vary based on location and there is limited infrastructure for recycling vinyl siding to date. Clean vinyl siding, free of dirt, fasteners and other contaminants, can be loaded into your truck bed or hauled to the curb for pickup.
What type of recycler are you? Read on for illustrated instructions specific to you:
If you're looking to recycle vinyl siding near you, call your local waste municipality recycling center or building products distributor and ask if they accept recycled vinyl siding. Our Revinylize™ Recycling Collaborative has been making strides with local businesses, so check in as even more locations join the movement!
Step inside vinyl siding manufacturing plants, and our industry's commitment to sustainability becomes clear. All polymeric cladding products—vinyl siding, insulated vinyl siding and polypropylene siding—make virtually no waste, use minimal raw materials and are lightweight for easy use and transportation. 99% of scrap material goes into the manufacturing process.
As an industry, we’re committed to lowering our environmental impact at all stages of the lifecycle.
More than 1 billion pounds of vinyl are recycled in the U.S. and Canada annually.
There are three ways vinyl can be recycled: post-consumer, post-industrial and closed-loop.
Post-industrial and closed-loop recycling accounts for approximately 85% of recycled vinyl. Post-industrial and closed-loop means that the product is reused during the manufacturing process, before it ever reaches the consumer. Scrap materials, trimmings, shavings and rejected vinyl are reground in a separate facility or in-house.
The other 15% of recycled vinyl comes from post-consumer recycling. Post-consumer recycling refers to vinyl materials that come from end-users of a product, like vinyl siding scrap generated by contractors, builders and remodelers, and old vinyl siding torn off homes or apartments. Post-consumer recycling of vinyl products has increased significantly—a 40% jump since 2014. In fact, more vinyl product producers are incorporating greater amounts of post-consumer reclaimed vinyl as technology has advanced to maintain product quality.
An estimated 146 million pounds of post-consumer vinyl products were recycled in 2016. Our goal is to encourage and facilitate 160 million pounds of post-consumer vinyl products recycled in 2025.
Although recycling is an important component of sustainability, vinyl siding has a long life and is not necessarily a part of the waste stream for a long time. Many warranties are 40 years or more—or even the life of the structure—and according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s life cycle assessment tool, vinyl siding, polypropylene siding and insulated vinyl siding have a useful life of at least 50 years.
Manufacturers can take a leading role in reducing landfill waste and making an environmental impact. By joining the Revinylize™ Recycling Collaborative, manufacturers take concrete steps to help make it easy to recycle vinyl siding, so everyone can participate in the sustainable lifecycle. Help increase the amount of vinyl siding that’s recycled.
JOIN THE COLLABORATIVE
Vinyl Siding Institute is now the Polymeric Exterior Products Association (PEPA)We’ve expanded our focus to represent the growing range of architectural products that share and complement vinyl siding’s performance and aesthetics. Learn More About PEPA |