The new service aims to provide contractors and facilities managers with a direct-to-processor route for insulation panels collected from sites across the UK.
The material is processed through the company’s existing fridge-recycling facilities in Gateshead and Perth, where metal facings and insulation cores are separated and gases are captured under controlled conditions.
Peter Moody, CEO at GAP Group North East, commented: “Insulation has helped cut energy use in buildings, but if we just dump the panels at end of life, we are swapping one environmental problem for another.
“By putting insulated panels through the same kind of highly regulated lines we use for fridges, we can recover metals, control and capture blowing agents, and stop these materials ending up as uncontrolled pollution or long‑term landfill burden.
“That means a real reduction in embodied carbon and environmental risk for our customers’ projects.”
Managing end-of-life insulation
According to GAP Group, construction accounts for around 62% of all waste generated in the UK and approximately a third of material sent to landfill, despite national targets to reduce landfill disposal close to zero.
While insulation plays a key role in reducing operational carbon from buildings, the sector has struggled to manage insulation panels once they are removed from roofs, façades, cold stores and industrial buildings.
Composite and foam-cored insulation panels are often placed into mixed skips at demolition or refurbishment stage and subsequently landfilled, shredded or sent for energy recovery.
These routes can lead to long-term environmental impacts, including the release of microplastics and the uncontrolled escape of harmful gases used in older insulation foams.
Older insulated panels, particularly those from legacy cold-room and composite systems, can also contain foams blown with ozone-depleting substances or gases with a high global warming potential.
Regulations require these gases to be captured and treated, rather than released through shredding, incineration or landfill.
The new insulation panel service sits alongside GAP Group’s wider multi‑stream offer – including fridges, small WEEE, vapes, batteries and display.
Interested in finding out more about Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling? Come to the National E-Waste & Critical Minerals Conference in London on 11 March 2026. Find out more here.
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