Sustainable design and manufacturing can reduce the negative impacts on the environment through reducing consumption of non-renewable resources, minimizing waste, and creating a quality-focused environment. Sustainability is an integral part of the Armacell business strategy and as a global leader in high-performance insulation materials, we have a responsibility to continually search for ways to reduce raw material use, lower energy consumption, and rethink waste streams. Environmental awareness enhances occupational safety, product stewardship, and corporate citizenship—so the benefits of reducing our carbon footprint are far-reaching. 

At Armacell, we recycle not only our regular waste streams like bottles and cans, but we also recycle our production scrap material. Several of our production facilities “reclaim” their product scrap for reuse on production lines which keeps the material from going into the landfill. This in turn provides us with more raw materials to use in our production process which helps reduce our consumption while saving on transportation needs, energy use, and supply chain costs.

In North America, our polyethylene insulation tubes, custom profiles, sheets, rolls, and pool noodles offer an excellent opportunity for recycling. At our Yukon, OK facility, 80% (or 850,000 lbs.) was recycled back into our manufacturing stream last year, and each product contains about 36% recycled material on average. At our Brampton, Ontario, Canada plant nearly 100% of all scrap material is recycled or reused. This totaled an impressive 800,000 lbs. of PE and cross-linked PE being recycled in 2021. All non-cross-linked PE is reground and put back into the process, and while our cross-linked material cannot be reclaimed, it instead goes to a third-party who turns it into carpet underlayment. In total, our North American insulation facilities have recycled over 11,000 tons of material last year showing our commitment to protect the environment and create a sustainable future. Check out our recycled totals below and our latest Sustainability Report here.

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