LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS – PVB
Laminated glass is obtained by bonding glass layers using a polymeric interlayer. Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) is used as interlayer in laminated glass and their use in construction components is growing, therefore the end-of-life should be addressed.
PVB Material
PVB is used primarily as a raw material for laminated safety glass sheet in automotive (windscreens and side and roof glass in luxury cars) and architectural applications (windows, structural glazing, canopies, roofs/floors, staircases and beams. Global PVB Films market is projected to grow considerably in the coming years due to increasing industrialization and urbanization.
The specifications for the raw PVB materials required by the glass industry are very high and specific (e.g. specific plasticizers), preferring in these cases to use virgin PVB. The use of recycled PVB could solve the above-mentioned problems, however, the PVB recycling now as interlayer is inexistent due to the low optical quality obtained, the mix of the compositions and to the poor collaboration of the producers of virgin materials.
In EU, glass waste from Renovation and Demolition are quantified on 1.540.704 tons/year. The proper recycling of all building glass waste could avoid 925.000 tons of landfilled waste every year. Up to now, most of the post-consume PVB material in laminated glass is incinerated/landfilled, and only a 9 % is recycled in secondary uses. It is clear that the PVB consumption is increasing in the next years and with it the amount of generated PVB waste involving important problems from an environmental point of view, resulting in the need to search for new strategies in terms of recycling.
Applications
SUNRISE project will consider also the fact that the input material, laminated glass containing PVB, is usually not clean and damaged. During the project, according to data obtained from the collection and from results on manipulation and processing the wastes, a manual on good management practices for storage and processing laminated glass wastes will be developed.