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Wednesday, 22 November 2017 01:19

Developing Affordable Passive Houses in Australia

A new house in a Melbourne suburban street has demonstrated that affordable Passive House construction looks within reach in Australia.

Until now passive houses were priced well beyond the means of ordinary Australians, and scared off both builders and home buyers. But retirees Sue and Peter, builder RMH homes, passive house certifier Grun Consulting, and uPVC windows supplier VUE Windows have produced an elegant, spacious home that looks like any normal new build. Unlike those normal new builds, however, the home will produce stellar results in terms of thermal comfort and energy efficiency. In doing so, they have opened the door to more affordable, comfortable, high performing homes in Australia.

The house features an expansive wall consisting of 32.45 square metres of uPVC double glazed windows and doors across the north-facing living and kitchen areas, including openable fanlight windows at ceiling height for purging hot summer air.

The argon filled double glazed uPVC windows achieve excellent insulation value of Uw 1.37 and a solar heat gain co-efficiency (SHGC) of 0.58, allowing winter sunshine to penetrate but not too much solar radiation in summer.

Read the full article about this house, published in Sourceable.net.

Published in News Archive
Wednesday, 19 July 2017 01:04

New recycling strategy for PVC in Australia

The Vinyl Council has updated its industry strategy aimed at facilitating growth in sustainable PVC recycling practices in Australia. 

Developed through consultations with members, industry and government, and at the PVC ReSource Summit held in late 2015, the strategy will direct future actions of the Vinyl Council and the sector.

PVC - the third most commonly used polymer in Australia - is recyclable, however, results show that only low volumes of PVC wastes are recovered, largely because most PVC is used in durable products, and less in packaging (which is where most waste and recycling policies and resources are focussed).

The VCA estimates around 66,900 tonnes ofrecyclablePVC product goes to landfill each year. This is wasted material that could be reprocessed into new quality product by Australian workers and firms, improving Australian productivity, economy and the environment.

The VCA and its members are committed to advancing PVC recycling and reprocessing. The updated industry strategy aims to address barriers, to share knowledge, data and expertise and to encourage innovation of reprocessing, product design and recycling capability.

Key elements in the 2016 Strategy

There are six parts to the strategy and three especially form the foundation: 

  1. Data and information. More data and knowledge are required for effective recycling of PVC.
  2. Collaboration between willing partners to drive change. Systemic change requires partners working together, and strong PVC reprocessing capability is required in all key States.
  3. End markets, without which there is no viable recycling practice. This requires building connections between demand and supply, development of appropriate recyclate-absorbing products and encouraging substitution of virgin or other less sustainable materials.

The VCA has established successful vinyl recylcing programs including the PVC Recycling in Hospitals program which is now in place at over 60 Australian hospitlas. The VCA thanks all those who contribute to the success of PVC recycling in Australia and looks forward to working with many to achieve the actions for improved results for Australia's recycling rate, productivity and manufacturing future. 

For more detail on the Strategy contact the Vinyl Council's This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Published in News Archive