Mikron Industries

Building Systems that Mean Business
GreenSmart

Green Smart FAQs

Source: Vinyl By Design Issues & Answers CD. For more information, visit The Vinyl Institute website.

What is Vinyl Made of?

PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) Compound for Window and Doors

  • Up to 65% chlorine (usually derived from rock salt)
  • Up to 35% polymers (usually derived from petrochemicals like natural gas)
  • Small amount of selected chemical additives and processing modifiers

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Are there Advantages to Chlorine?
  • Chlorine is derived from brine - a solution of everyday salt and water that is readily available and inexpensive which keeps costs low.
  • Chlorine has excellent flame retardant properties that remain in end-user products that have a high resistance to ignition and flame spread.

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What happens when PVC is burned?
  • "Dioxin" is a term for a family of persistent chemicals that are created through various natural and synthetic processes including incineration, forest fires, metal smelting, and certain industrial operations involving chlorine and other organic compounds.
  • Because chlorine can be found almost everywhere on earth (e.g., in salt), dioxin will be formed when most things burn, including wood, food, garbage and vinyl.
  • Environmental impact of Chlorine - The vinyl industry, using EPA protocols, measured its emissions from all U.S. manufacturing operations on the same basis and found that the industry contributed about 13 grams - less than 1 percent of the total amount generated. (This is the total vinyl industry, which vinyl windows are a very small portion.)
  • It is impossible to prevent the formation of small amounts of dioxin in an accidental building fire by avoiding the use of certain building materials.
  • All materials - synthetic and natural (wood) - when they burn emit hundreds of different chemicals, many of which are persistent and potentially toxic.
  • In a typical accidental fire, carbon monoxide and heat are recognized as the most serious threats.

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Is PVC fire resistant?
  • PVC burns at higher temperatures than many other materials.
  • Likely PVC windows and doors will not burn once the flame is removed - therefore limiting potential toxins.
  • 51% of all residential windows sold in 2004 were Vinyl (Ducker Research Group 4/2005). Remodeling and the construction industry have readily accepted vinyl windows as the "window of choice" more often than not.

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Is PVC Recyclable?
  • PVC is reusable resource that doesn't contribute to deforestation.
  • During window manufacturing some PVC ends up as unusable in a finished product and is considered scrap.
  • This scrap PVC is then brought back to Mikron. The PVC scrap is pulverized and a percentage is blended with virgin PVC and reprocessed back into good, clean window and door frame material.
  • On average most vinyl window and door manufacturers using Mikron extrusions recycle their PVC window manufacturing scrap, which is then reprocessed into new PVC window and door extrusions. The result is significantly less PVC scrap goes into landfills.

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Do Vinyl Windows and Doors save Energy?
  • Through product design, vinyl windows and doors are some of the most energy efficient building products in the market today.
  • Our vinyl window and door products meet or exceed the U.S. Department of Energy's ENERGY STAR program standards and NFRC (National Fenestration Rating Council) certification for energy efficiency performance.

Using Low-E coated glass greatly enhances energy efficiency year-round - by reducing solar heat gain in the summer to limit energy required for cooling and reduced conductive heat loss in the winter to lower heating costs.

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