October 29, 2025
GF and Aduro Launch Innovative Partnership to Advance the Future of PEX Recycling
By Chrissie Walsh and Alex Gross
Modern day construction practices are designed to yield the quickest and cheapest results and continue to fuel the misguided notion of a linear economy: that we have an unlimited supply of natural resources to meet an unlimited demand. This often creates a large amount of wasted packaging and scrap construction materials that simply go into “the jobsite bin.” However, we do not have unlimited supply; our natural resources and environment are facing critical thresholds in their capacity to sustain future generations. An intention to design regenerative, recycled, or renewable materials, keeping resources in use for as long as possible, and creating value in "waste" at the end of a material's lifecycle is imperative.
The buildings we occupy are massive resource consumers and waste producers. They account for 40% of global energy use, 30% of raw material consumption, and 30-40% of global waste. To reduce building waste and resource consumption, we must embrace circularity and consider the amount of embodied carbon generated from the products that go into our buildings.
Circularity involves designing products and systems so that materials are reused, repurposed, or recycled (ideally, infinitely) instead of being discarded as waste after their first use is complete. It's a foundational concept of the circular economy, which challenges the traditional “take-make-waste” model by keeping resources in use for as long as possible.
The concepts of circularity are deeply dependent on system-based thinking, applicable to every industry beyond just the construction of buildings. It is an industry agnostic challenge that every company must address within their business models. Within this mindset, designers are mindful of the value of the current carbon molecules already in use have. Much like natural systems optimized to minimize waste and fully maximize resource utilization, circularity embraces that the landfill should be the least attractive place for potential raw materials to end up after their first use.
With over 600 million tons of construction and demolition debris generated in the US alone in 2018, the concept of circularity aims to challenge the industry-accepted landfilled fate of this material annually. Some of the main levers for circular action in this space include innovative raw material usage, longevity in use, takeback programs, advanced recycling, reuse, and repurposing actions.
GF is creating opportunity within each facet or circular action described above.
Aduro’s recycling method can efficiently recycle durable plastic materials, such as PEX, using chemolysis. This process uses water and elevated temperatures to turn almost all waste into valuable intermediate, with much less losses to residues and waste gases than alternative processes. Aduro’s life cycle assessment (LCA) indicates that their recycling method reduces the carbon footprint associated with recycling by 50% compared to other advanced methods, such as pyrolysis or gasification. With this technology, PEX can be recycled into a very valuable material for use as a raw material in a variety of second-life products. As only about 20% of plastics can be mechanically recycled, this creates another form of complimentary recycling technologies that are utilized for landfill or incineration avoidance.
The partnership between Aduro and GF demonstrates an industry-leading collective effort towards the advancement of a circular economy, particularly in the built environment. It allows GF to diversify its portfolio in sustainable and circular recycling opportunities, scaling downstream synergies that matter in future proofing how we do business.
The partnership with Aduro further enhances the sustainability of our products by offering sustainable recycling methods that transition PEX into high-value materials for additional uses within its lifecycle.
The buildings we occupy are massive resource consumers and waste producers. They account for 40% of global energy use, 30% of raw material consumption, and 30-40% of global waste. To reduce building waste and resource consumption, we must embrace circularity and consider the amount of embodied carbon generated from the products that go into our buildings.
Circularity involves designing products and systems so that materials are reused, repurposed, or recycled (ideally, infinitely) instead of being discarded as waste after their first use is complete. It's a foundational concept of the circular economy, which challenges the traditional “take-make-waste” model by keeping resources in use for as long as possible.
The concepts of circularity are deeply dependent on system-based thinking, applicable to every industry beyond just the construction of buildings. It is an industry agnostic challenge that every company must address within their business models. Within this mindset, designers are mindful of the value of the current carbon molecules already in use have. Much like natural systems optimized to minimize waste and fully maximize resource utilization, circularity embraces that the landfill should be the least attractive place for potential raw materials to end up after their first use.
With over 600 million tons of construction and demolition debris generated in the US alone in 2018, the concept of circularity aims to challenge the industry-accepted landfilled fate of this material annually. Some of the main levers for circular action in this space include innovative raw material usage, longevity in use, takeback programs, advanced recycling, reuse, and repurposing actions.
GF is creating opportunity within each facet or circular action described above.
- Innovative raw materials: Considering where sustainable raw materials, such as biobased or recycled content, may be feasible for use within our product line.
- Longevity in use: Uponor PEX-a is built with a high degree of crosslinking to last the lifetime of the building; our products stay in use, requiring minimal maintenance or replacement for years to come. Uponor PEX-a is not a single-use plastic by any means.
- Take back program design: We are committed to piloting jobsite waste and customer scrap product takeback programs, actively engaging with members of the building industry, including our own competitors, to understand what an ideal future-state program design might look like. This will be a collective challenge for our industry, where novel partnerships will need to be intentionally created.
- Recycling: As the advanced recycling industry continues to commercially scale and develop effective technologies, with the capacity to meet the needs of our industry, we are intentionally building partnerships and fostering relationships that advance circularity through this critical supplement to existing mechanical recycling processes.
Aduro’s recycling method can efficiently recycle durable plastic materials, such as PEX, using chemolysis. This process uses water and elevated temperatures to turn almost all waste into valuable intermediate, with much less losses to residues and waste gases than alternative processes. Aduro’s life cycle assessment (LCA) indicates that their recycling method reduces the carbon footprint associated with recycling by 50% compared to other advanced methods, such as pyrolysis or gasification. With this technology, PEX can be recycled into a very valuable material for use as a raw material in a variety of second-life products. As only about 20% of plastics can be mechanically recycled, this creates another form of complimentary recycling technologies that are utilized for landfill or incineration avoidance.
The partnership between Aduro and GF demonstrates an industry-leading collective effort towards the advancement of a circular economy, particularly in the built environment. It allows GF to diversify its portfolio in sustainable and circular recycling opportunities, scaling downstream synergies that matter in future proofing how we do business.
The partnership with Aduro further enhances the sustainability of our products by offering sustainable recycling methods that transition PEX into high-value materials for additional uses within its lifecycle.