2019 marks ten years of vinyl flooring recycling for Recofloor

This year is an exciting year for Recofloor who will celebrate 10 years of recycling waste vinyl flooring.

Set up back in 2009 by Altro and Polyflor, the Take Back scheme has now recycled a total of 4,300 tonnes of waste vinyl material.

The scheme now has well over 700 collectors throughout the UK and Ireland, plus more than 60 drop-off sites accepting waste vinyl flooring.

The scheme sees smooth and safety vinyl offcuts and roll ends, uplifted smooth vinyl, luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) and loose lay are recycled back into new products, including flooring manufactured by Altro and Polyflor. 

Bob Smith, Polyflor’s Technical Director comments: “Plastics are hot news at the moment and we are proud to be instrumental in recycling our waste vinyl flooring. We, as well as Altro, invest significant amounts of time, energy and money into the scheme.”

Barry Hall, Altro’s Manufacturing and Technical Director adds: “Companies working with Recofloor are leading the way in terms of resource recovery and circular economy. This takeback scheme is helping Altro in terms of its sustainability programme and ambitious growth plans.”

Praising members’ commitment, Recofloor’s Project Officer Joe Gardner adds: “We are truly proud of our achievements over the past decade and certainly credit is due to all our members – flooring companies, contractors and distributors – who continue to work tirelessly to support the scheme. Everyone deserves a big pat on the back for their efforts and enthusiasm.”

Recofloor over the years

From the outset Recofloor made an impact, winning several high-profile environmental and innovation awards for its recycling achievements within the scheme’s first five years. In 2011, more than 450 tonnes were collected during that single year. In 2013, the scheme was recognised with a Green Apple Gold Award for Environmental Best Practice.

By the time Recofloor reached its fifth birthday in 2014, the scheme had toppled a 2,000-tonnes collection milestone. 2015 saw over 100 new members join Recofloor and by that year, the scheme had saved more than 2,000 tonnes of CO2.

Further awards recognition was to come, including the Letsrecycle.com Award for Excellence in Recycling & Waste Management in 2016. The following year, Recofloor broke through the 3,000-tonnes collection total and had more than 1,500 Twitter followers.