Recofloor
Intro
The flooring industry is not bound by law to recycle waste, but Polyflor is actively seeking to recover and recycle its post consumer waste vinyl flooring to minimise the flooring industry’s environmental impact and close the loop of our products’ life cycles.
In the Beginning...
A major challenge in the recycling of post-consumer waste was the logistics of retrieving the material, rather than actually recycling it. To try and tackle this issue and actively encourage recycling more waste vinyl flooring, a working group was formed in 2007 with all vinyl flooring manufacturers on board, managed and coordinated by a waste management company.
Funding for this recycling initiative came from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme). Once the trial period and government funding ceased, members had to review the scheme’s future. Polyflor continued to run the scheme with another UK manufacturer and in 2009 Recofloor was formed.
As a founding and funding member of Recofloor, Polyflor has helped develop the scheme into the success that it is today — supporting financially; driving the scheme through sales and marketing, as well as logistically supporting with collections, sorting and ultimately recycling.
About Recofloor
Through Recofloor, Polyflor can recycle sheet and tile installation offcuts, smooth uplifted and loose lay flooring, and old stock roll-ends and samples. This material is recovered and recycled into new flooring or other useful products such as traffic cones and barriers.
Regardless of waste material volumes, there is an outlet accessible for everyone:
- For smaller volumes, drop-off sites at distributors are available at no charge
- Larger volumes of waste vinyl can be collected on pallets directly from a live project, on a timed collection when required, or collected from a contractor’s site — There are fees for collections, but compared to the average landfill cost of £122 per tonne these nominal fees can save up to 70%
What’s collected?
YES ✓
- Post installation, clean vinyl offcuts (all sheet & tile vinyl flooring)
- Old stock vinyl roll ends & samples (all sheet & tile vinyl flooring)
- Smooth uplifted & loose lay flooring - depending on condition and quality
NO ✗
- Linoleum, laminate, carpet, cushioned flooring or flooring with jute or fabric backing
- Liquids
- General waste including asbestos, rubble, wood, blades, nails, screws etc
Recofloor Locations
Recofloor’s Progress
Since 2009 Recofloor has achieved a great deal and is now the industry leading facilitator for efficiently reclaiming vinyl flooring, with 536 members on board today. 2010 was a real turning point for the scheme, which saw Recofloor winning the CIWM (Chartered Institute of Wastes Management) Award for Environmental Excellence in the category of SME Innovative Practice. Since then, Recofloor has won a BCE (Business Commitment to the Environment) Premier Award and the Gold Award in the International Green Apple Environment Awards 2013, for Environmental Best Practice. Recofloor’s ‘Cost Calculator’, was a great initiative and continues to allow contractors to calculate how much it would cost to send their waste to landfill, and importantly the savings they will generate by using Recofloor instead.
- Volumes are consistently strong, with 6,445 tonnes having been collected since the scheme started in 2009. This volume equals nearly 2,148,333m2 or 53,708 x 20m rolls of Polyflor Palettone PUR floor covering - that’s enough vinyl waste flooring to cover nearly 270 301 football pitches. This has had a positive impact on CO2 emissions too, saving 7,560 tonnes of CO2 - the same as taking 1,973 cars off the road.
Hear From Our Members
“We are proud to be associated with Recofloor and we actively recycle all our waste vinyl flooring, reducing the impact on the environment. We are also saving on our disposal costs, a major factor with any business. We will continue with this policy and endeavour to return 100% good quality waste vinyl for eventual use in new products.” - Wayne Ede, Managing Director, Westlinks
“The Recofloor service is very convenient for us, especially for contractors who want to drop off small amounts of flooring and it all helps to save money.” - Nathan Campling, Director, Eden Flooring and Interiors
“I think the Recofloor scheme is brilliant; recycling is the best thing that should happen to old vinyl. I take any vinyl out of the skips, put it into the Recofloor bags and ask the fitters to check for contaminants in their bags too. We do save on disposal costs through the scheme; four bags cost £30 each versus £250 for a skip of the same size - so that’s a 50% saving and vinyl is not going into landfill.” - Jeff Abbott, Warehouse Manager, Top Floors, Ipswich
“We put a lot of effort into Recofloor; it’s a no-brainer for people. Recycling, if you’re working in schools, hospitals, that sort of Government environment, counts for a lot. They’re saving money and they’re helping the environment; it ticks a lot of boxes.
“The team is fantastic to work with, they make it very easy to deal with and they really help. It’s not additional, it just works with us. It’s brilliant!” - Niall Kinsella Contracts Manager, MCD Kidderminster
“Recofloor has definitely had a direct influence on my company securing a lot of contracts with local authorities and NHS Trusts who are also looking to further their green credentials with their sustainability targets.” - Anthony Francis, Managing Director at Mayfield Floors
“The drop-off site at 3D Flooring in Cardiff is convenient for us - and it’s free. We’re saving around £250 a month on disposal costs and helping to save the environment by recycling waste vinyl that can be readily reused in new products.
“Winning a Recofloor Award - our first - has raised awareness of our company.” - Mark Purnell, Director, Fantasy Flooring