Plastic doors could circle the Earth – but at what cost?

Green Doors urges a rethink on uPVC waste ahead of Earth Day 2025

Every year, the UK produces over 12 million plastic doors and window frames. Laid end to end, this sea of uPVC would stretch more than 24,000 kilometres — far enough to leave London and keep walking through Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Mumbai and Sydney, finally vanishing somewhere in the South Pacific. Within two years, the uPVC would circle the Earth completely.

“We are wrapping the world in harmful plastic,” says Joseph Holman, CEO of Green Doors, a Luton-based company that upcycles second-hand doors.

“Yet the vast majority of this will eventually end up in landfill, and that’s an environmental catastrophe.”

uPVC — the plastic used in most modern doors and windows — doesn’t biodegrade. As it breaks down, it leaches toxic additives into soil and groundwater.

“We’ve rightly banned plastic straws and cotton buds,” says Holman, “but we’re still throwing millions of giant plastic slabs into skips. It makes no sense.”

Green Doors is urging builders and homeowners to think again before dumping old doors.

“Doors are expensive,” Holman says, “but that means you can resell them if you’re remodelling a house. Reusing doors makes sense for both the planet and your wallet.”

The UK’s appetite for plastic doors peaked at 14 million units in 2014 and still sits above 12 million annually, according to figures from Statista. That’s enough uPVC to circle the Earth once every two years — and globally, the picture is even starker.

An estimated 10 billion doors are produced worldwide every year. Stack those up lengthways and you could loop the Earth 500 times.

“That’s not a statistic,” says Holman. “That’s a warning. We are literally sealing ourselves into a toxic future.”

As Earth Day 2025 approaches — this year themed Our Power, Our Planet — Holman is calling for a rethink.

“Old doors and window frames should be reused, not thrown into landfill. Stop worrying about plastic straws and focus on something far bigger.”

“It’s a simple message: open the door to change — before we lock ourselves in with plastic.”

ABOUT JOSEPH HOLMAN AND GREEN DOORS

Joseph Holman is the CEO and founder of upcycling company Green Doors, which started with a door he found in a skip. The business now produces revenues of close to £2m and has 14 employees.

Last year the business saved over 4000 items destined for landfill and currently has over thousands of doors and windows for sale in its 25,000 square foot warehouse. Holman is on a mission to provide every door with a second life and to stop UPVC going to landfill.