Winsa is a company that is sensitive to the environment, thus we have aimed at leaving a clean environment to children as early as possible by fulfilling in advance the legal obligations that the European countries have to perform until 2015.
For this purpose we took action for the environment with the use of 100% recyclable TPE gaskets in 2004 and also started to manufacture the profiles with an environmentally-friendly calcium-zinc stabilizer. For today, for tomorrow and beyond…
The concept of free competition and free circulation regarded as one of the fundamental factors for the integration of Europe has required the enterprises to combine their capacities under a common policy also in respect of the environment.
The EU’s environment policy is particularly important since the environment is an area that has global effects and of a particular concern to the future of humankind and the earth. And the environmental issues have also come into prominence in our country.
The fundamental reason for the creation of a common framework policy within the European Union is that the environmental pollution is an issue that goes beyond the political borders and, it is necessary to maintain and improve the natural living conditions in a healthy manner for the further improvement of the quality of life.
Considering the impacts of all the products used by people in their daily lives on the environment, human health and security, new approaches have started to be developed in Europe and throughout the world. Consequently, the Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC Industry (VINYL 2010) was established in 2010 in the European Union.
This commitment applies not only to the PVC manufacturers but also the industry, where PVC additives including PVC are manufactured. Australia has banned the importation of plastic materials that contain heavy metals as from the beginning of 2008. The United States of America has also banned the use of lead and similar heavy metals in PVC products.
Upon a joint decision by the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM), the European Stabilisers Producers Associations (ESPA) and the European Plastic Converters (EuPC), which are the members of the above-mentioned Vinyl 2010, it was committed that the content of lead as the most used heavy metal would be reduced by the following percentages based on the materials consumed in 2000.
The Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC Industry (Vinyl 2010) has banned the use of Ba-Cd stabilizer as a heavy metal in all the European markets as from March 2001. As of 2001, all the PVC users have started to use of the groups of lead-based stabilizers closely following up the technological developments. As the industrial progress and the level of sensitivity to the environment gets increased, calcium-zinc based stabilizers have been developed as an alternative to lead-based stabilizers.
As a result of this development, the Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC Industry (Vinyl 2010) has aimed at the transition to the use of calcium-zinc based stabilizers instead of lead-based stabilizers in Europe by 2015. This objective would provide great advantages in particular for the use, transportation and storage of compounds. There will be no negative impact on the end users and, this will make sure that environmentally friendly windows are manufactured in compliance with the applicable European norms.
This transition in question brings many technological challenges. Since PVC is not a raw material that is used alone, it is enriched with various additives to make it ready for the use for industrial purposes. Among these additives, stabilizers are of a great importance. Therefore, they may be called the basic ingredient of PVC compounds.
PVC profile molds and manufacturing machines are designed and built in line with the composition that is created by this chemical texture. It takes a significant amount of engineering knowledge, cost and know-how to change the chemical structure considering the investments already made on the existing molds and machines.
Therefore, the transition has been scheduled to be achieved within a long period of time even in the European countries. Based on the great extent of knowledge and experience it has, Winsa has completed this process within a very short period of time and started to use calcium-zinc stabilizers for the production of all the window and door profiles.
With this transition, Winsa has further reinforced its position as an important player in the industry that follows and applies the innovations.