The European standard EN253:2019 The European standard EN253:2019 poses a challenge to set off the journey towards using recycled plastics from external sources. EN253:2019 requires the following of the casing material: "Only clean, not degraded, rework material, generated from the manufacturer's production, shall be used." The purpose of this requirement is, of course, to make sure that only HDPE material of the proper quality is used, which of course is a good intention, but it is this requirement that LOGSTOR wants to challenge and have changed. What must be important is that when you use recycled plastics, you make sure the casings are of good quality and meet all other require- ments in the standard. LOGSTOR has therefore initiated the process of changing the standard, allowing the use of recycled plastics from external sources. So earlier this year, we filed a proposal regarding this with the technical committee of the European standards for pre-insulated pipes. This subject is now an active work item within the Technical Committee for European standards for pre-insulated pipes (TC107). The possibility to document that the quality and lifetime of the pre-insulated pipe is the same by using external recycled HDPE of excellent quality as with new HDPE material produced from oil is essential. I will describe this in the next part of the article. Requirement specification to externally recycled plastics and qualification of suppliers The first step to securing the recycled HDPE's right quality is to define a material specification, describing the minimum re- quirements to recycled plastics from external sources. In the material specification, the minimum rate of recycled plastics is PE80 or PE100, and the recycled HDPE shall fully comply with the requirements in EN253:2019. Suppliers of recycled HDPE must document that they live up to these requirements with a so-called 3.1 certificate.
The pipes marked with a green print, and each pipe-end with a recycle label
Therefore, the documentation that the casings produced from recycled plastics meet the exact requirements as those made from new plastics and consequently have the same long-term properties is crucial. Once this fundamental requirement is met and, using prod- ucts produced from recycled materials will strengthen the en- vironmental profile of the energy company: • To consumers • With authorities • Concerning other ways of heating the housing stock, and a strengthening of the competitive position of DH And then, of course, there will be a documented CO 2 saving. The use of recycled materials is a hot issue, and in the future, demands from governments, organizations, DH companies, customers, and citizens will arise.
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