Two years after its launch, Repan, Isosta's deconstruction unit, is expanding and closing the recycling loop.

This unit was designed to separate the components of the panels with the aim of reintroducing them into the recycling cycle through established channels.

With 250 tons recycled by 2024, REPAN is establishing itself as a concrete response to the challenges of sandwich panel recycling. In just two years, this deconstruction unit has proven the relevance of its ecological, economic, and technical model. Capable of processing up to 500 tons per year, it recovers 90% of the material received.

In 2025, REPAN will begin a new phase with the production of a reusable insulation material currently undergoing ACERMI certification, thus completing a virtuous circle where deconstructed materials are reintegrated into ISOSTA's own production.
This dynamic is fully in line with ISOSTA's CSR commitment, which is also reflected in the choice to locate the unit on a former brownfield industrial site, rehabilitated according to the principles of Zero Net Artificialization (ZAN), thus reconciling industrial deployment and soil preservation.

Principle of deconstruction and reintroduction of materials

REPAN is a sandwich panel deconstruction unit. The service involves separating the various components, such as aluminum cladding and extruded polystyrene (XPS), from the insulation. The materials are then recycled in dedicated recycling channels.

The market for glued sandwich panels currently reaches an estimated annual volume of 2,5 million square meters. These elements are primarily used in exterior joinery – doors, windows, shutters – as well as for veranda roofs.

Thanks to the process implemented by REPAN, these panels, previously considered ordinary industrial waste (OIW), can now be reclassified as recyclable raw materials.

This transformation not only reduces the sector's carbon footprint, but it also proves more economically advantageous: REPAN takes back the panels to be deconstructed at a lower cost (20 to 60%) than that generally charged for the treatment of DIB.

250 tonnes recycled in 2024, 500 tonnes in 2025: a balanced industrial model, growing and adapted to the complexity of the materials to be recycled

REPAN takes back its customers' production waste in accordance with strict specifications. Its business model is based entirely on the resale of materials from deconstruction. In 2024, 250 tons were recycled, with 90% of the flows redirected to recycling channels, including 150 tons of aluminum and 35 tons of expanded polystyrene (XPS).

Until recently, only waste from ISOSTA production, composed of clearly identified and recurring materials, was handled. Panels outside the ISOSTA perimeter, often heterogeneous and less well documented, mostly ended up buried, crushed, or incinerated, due to a lack of suitable technical solutions and accessible recycling channels. These materials, although theoretically recyclable, therefore escaped any real recovery.

Since 2024, REPAN has opened its processing capacity to these third-party streams and is refining its processes to integrate new complex compositions, with a view to continuously improving the recyclability rate. REPAN's objective remains constant: to limit ultimate waste to less than 10%.

Among the materials now supported, after product acceptance, are PET, polyurethane and PVC combined with an aluminum cladding – materials previously excluded from the ISOSTA scope and whose recycling outlets remain limited today.

For each flow, REPAN carries out precise work of sorting, cleaning and adapting processing techniques.

The advent of reuse materialized by the certification of an innovative insulator

REPAN doesn't just sort, separate, and recycle. The unit also serves as an industrial reuse laboratory. Among its most significant projects, REPAN focuses on transforming insulation extracted from sandwich panels into a recomposed material with high added value. Sanded, cleaned, and then reshaped, this material is now entering a phase of official recognition with an ACERMI certification process underway.

The challenge is twofold. On the one hand, this process allows for the requalification of a by-product from deconstruction into a new, standardized raw material that can once again be incorporated into new panels. On the other hand, it embodies the vision of a truly closed circular economy, in which ISOSTA would be able to directly reinject materials from its own waste or that of its customers into its production lines.

The goal is to create a low-impact, reusable insulation material that meets the thermal requirements of facade, housing, and roofing solutions. This development is part of the group's CSR strategy, which plans to incorporate 20% recycled or bio-sourced materials into its products by 2025. By reducing its dependence on virgin materials and structuring a comprehensive recovery chain, REPAN is taking a decisive step forward, both technically and strategically.

Closing the loop of the circular economy

The loop is already closed in some sectors. The XPS processed at REPAN is compacted, returned to the supplier, and reintegrated into ISOSTA panels. The long-term goal is to increase the number of this type of short circuit.

A virtuous industrial establishment

Established since January 2025 on a 12.000 m² brownfield site, REPAN boasts a built-up area of ​​5.000 m², of which only 1.000 m² is currently used for production. The unit is organized around four halls – dedicated respectively to machines, outgoing materials, and two still unoccupied spaces.

The purchase and rehabilitation of this site reflects ISOSTA's desire to increase REPAN's production capacity in terms of volume and tonnage, while preserving biodiversity. This choice of location is fully in line with the Zero Net Artificialization (ZNA) objective, by allowing industrial development without changing the land use.

In a context where urbanization is identified as one of the main threats to ecosystems, this strategy allows REPAN to project its growth over the long term.

Thanks to this very large surface area, the unit has significant expansion leverage to support the ramp-up of its activities, without consuming new land.

REPAN illustrates ISOSTA’s CSR roadmap

Born from the ISOSTA group's CSR roadmap initiated in 2018, REPAN concretely embodies the manufacturer's commitments to a circular economy. This unit responds to a broader strategy aimed at reducing its climate impacts by 2030, by limiting DIB waste and gradually integrating recycled or bio-sourced materials into all ISOSTA products.