The Lifecycle of PVC Feeder Pillars
When choosing a material for an electrical feeder pillar, performance is only part of the consideration.
Increasingly, manufacturers and infrastructure providers are also looking at what happens to a product at the end of its service life. Can the material be recovered? Can it be processed again? Is there an established route for recycling it?
For Ritherdon, these questions formed part of the development of our PVC Cabinet Range.
PVC was selected not only because of its electrical insulation and performance properties, but because it offers an established route for material recovery and recycling.
Is PVC Recyclable?
Yes. PVC can be mechanically recycled.
PVC is a thermoplastic material, which means it can be processed and reprocessed. Mechanical recycling typically involves collecting, sorting, shredding and processing the material into recyclate that can be used in new products.
The British Plastics Federation describes PVC as a material that can be mechanically recycled, with proper sorting being important to achieving good quality recycled material. Rigid PVC recyclate is already used in applications including pipes and profiles.
PVC recycling is not a new concept. Established recycling systems operate across Europe, and the UK has an active network for recovering and processing PVC products. The British Plastics Federation reports significant volumes of PVC being collected and recycled through industry recycling schemes.
For Ritherdon, this is important because recyclability is not simply a theoretical property of PVC. There is already an established recycling infrastructure around the material.
Why Does the Recyclability of PVC Matter?
Electrical feeder pillars can have long service lives, particularly when used in permanent infrastructure applications.
That makes durability important, but it also makes material selection important.
A material with an established recycling route offers the potential for the material to be recovered and used again rather than simply being treated as waste at the end of a product’s life.
This is one of the reasons PVC was attractive to Ritherdon when developing the PVC Cabinet.
The cabinet is manufactured using both recycled and virgin PVC, combining recycled material with the performance requirements of a new electrical feeder pillar.
The aim is not simply to make a cabinet from plastic. It is to use a material whose properties make sense throughout its lifecycle.
Why Compare PVC with GRP?
GRP has been widely used for electrical enclosures because it provides strength, rigidity and resistance to corrosion.
However, GRP is a composite material made from glass fibres and a resin system. That composite construction is also a challenge when it comes to recycling because the constituent materials are bonded together.
PVC has a different material structure and established mechanical recycling routes.
This does not mean that GRP has no possible recovery options, but the recycling route for a thermoplastic such as PVC is more straightforward and well established for a number of product streams.
For Ritherdon, this difference was an important consideration when looking at alternatives to traditional GRP electrical enclosures.
PVC Recycling Is Already Happening at Industrial Scale
One of the reasons we are confident in the recycling potential of PVC is that industrial-scale recycling already exists.
Our material supplier, VEKA, operates a dedicated PVC recycling facility in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. VEKA states that its UK facility processes end-of-life PVC-U windows and doors and has an annual capacity of around 25,000 tonnes. Its recycling process is designed to recover the PVC and return it to manufacturing, supporting a closed-loop approach to the material.
The Wellingborough facility is part of a wider VEKA recycling network, and the company has invested significantly in developing its UK recycling capability. VEKA’s own information describes the site as a dedicated facility for processing post-consumer and production PVC-U material.
For Ritherdon, this provides a practical example of something important: PVC recycling is already an established industrial process, rather than simply a future aspiration.
Why This Influenced Our Choice of PVC
The decision to develop the PVC Cabinet was driven by several requirements.
Customers were asking for electrically insulated feeder pillars for applications where different earthing systems can be within touching distance, particularly within EV charging infrastructure.
The enclosure therefore needed to provide reliable electrical insulation as well as the durability required for outdoor use.
But sustainability also mattered, PVC offered a combination of properties that made it well suited to the brief.
It is electrically insulating, durable, corrosion resistant and has established recycling routes. The material is already being recovered and reprocessed across a range of industries, with dedicated recycling infrastructure in the UK.
The result is a feeder pillar designed around the needs of modern electrical infrastructure while considering the material beyond its initial application.
Designing for the Whole Lifecycle
Sustainability is not achieved simply by selecting a recyclable material.
A product also needs to provide a long service life, because extending the useful life of an enclosure reduces the frequency with which it needs to be replaced.
Its PVC construction provides electrical insulation and resistance to corrosion and weather exposure, while its material selection provides an established pathway for recycling.
A durable product that can remain in service for many years and is made from a material with established recycling routes offers a more considered approach to product lifecycle design.
PVC and the Future of Electrical Infrastructure
The development of the PVC Cabinet was driven by changing customer requirements, particularly the growing demand for electrically insulated feeder pillars.
But meeting that demand also provided an opportunity to think differently about material selection.
PVC offers electrical insulation, durability and established recycling routes. The existence of industrial scale recycling infrastructure, including VEKA’s dedicated UK facility, demonstrates that recovering and reprocessing rigid PVC is already a practical reality.
For Ritherdon, that is an important part of the case for PVC: designing a feeder pillar that performs throughout its service life while also considering what happens to the material afterwards.
Discover more about the Ritherdon PVC Cabinet and how its electrically insulated PVC construction has been designed for modern electrical infrastructure.
