Recofloor announces carbon savings by recycling vinyl flooring

Recycling waste vinyl flooring through the Recofloor scheme has produced well over one million kilogrammes of carbon savings - equivalent to driving 120 times around the equator or taking 248 cars off the road for a year.

Since its 2009 inception, the UK's national vinyl flooring recycling scheme has collected 1,259 tonnes of smooth offcuts, smooth uplifted vinyl and safety offcuts for recycling back into products, such as new flooring - an equivalent saving of 1,007,200 kg - or 1,007 tonnes - of CO2.

Recofloor, founded by flooring manufacturers Altro and Polyflor to divert waste vinyl flooring from landfill, calculated this total volume equals nearly 420,000m² or enough to cover 58 football pitches.

In 2012 alone, the 449 tonnes of material collected via the Recofloor scheme represented almost 150,000m² or sufficient to cover 21 football pitches.

Jane Gardner, Recofloor's Project Manager, described the figures as a "creditable achievement" in the present challenging times. She highlighted success in diversification into new areas, such as the education sector with on-going refurbishment of schools and colleges, for helping to grow recycling volumes. This year's collection target is 600 tonnes.

Collections from distributors have risen 12.5% year-on-year, showing Recofloor's approach to bulking up small volumes of waste over larger geographical areas really works. "This is an excellent, practical and popular solution to collecting smaller volumes of flooring that might otherwise be disposed of to landfill, while also saving on transport costs," explained Jane. Drop-off sites at flooring distributors allow local contractors to deposit waste vinyl, meaning fewer visits to sites and greatly reducing the scheme's carbon impact.

She also praised the consistent efforts of the scheme's 450-plus members, whose commitment will be recognised at Recofloor's annual awards event at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham on March 13th.

Registration for the event is now open to Recofloor members who can access full details via the website - www.recofloor.org/awards.php - and learn about two new awards categories. The first is Recofloor Specialist, a company or facility that is not a contractor or distributor, yet has made an important contribution to the scheme.

The second is Recofloor Drop-off Site Member of the Year - a flooring contractor selected by shortlisted nominees for the Distributor of the Year award whom they feel has used the service the most.