Recofloor celebrates recycling awards winners

Recofloor recently celebrated its 10th anniversary at The Belfry, where it recognised and rewarded the achievements of the vinyl flooring recycling scheme members. The Recofloor 2019 Awards Event saw flooring companies, contractors and distributors receive trophies and certificates in ten major award categories, plus Gold, Silver and Bronze groupings, from guest host, comedian Mark Watson.

Recofloor’s scheme members collected 570 tonnes of waste vinyl flooring through the takeback scheme in 2018, an increase of 1.6% and beating last year’s annual record total for the scheme. This is the fifth consecutive year that Recofloor has increased its annual tonnages.

Since its 2009 inception by leading flooring manufacturers Altro and Polyflor, Recofloor has collected more than 4,500 tonnes of smooth and safety vinyl offcuts and roll ends, uplifted smooth vinyl, luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) and adhesive-free vinyl, which are recycled back into new products, including flooring. This total is enough to cover more than 207 football pitches.

Congratulating the efforts of Recofloor’s members, Polyflor’s UK and International Marketing Director, Tom Rollo said: “In the last 10 years, there’s no scheme in the UK in our field that comes anywhere near close to the achievements of Recofloor. The numbers are impressive! Looking further into Europe, Recofloor is seen as a leading, if not the leading, example of a successful flooring recycling scheme.”

The main winners in the eighth annual awards were Fineweave Carpets; Fitwell Flooring, Redruth; Fantasy Flooring Ltd; Andy Nichols, HFD Bridgend; Middlesex Flooring Ltd; Lee Floorstok, Liverpool; CT Flooring Ltd; Branagan Flooring Services Ltd; Birch Distribution and Reform Flooring Ltd.

One of Recofloor’s newer members, Fineweave Carpets Ltd won Contractor of the Year and Bailey and Taylor Ltd was highly commended. Distributors play a significant role in the scheme’s success by extending their services to allow fitters to drop off smaller volumes of waste vinyl flooring at their premises. Fitwell Flooring, Redruth was named Distributor of the Year and Safety Flooring Supplies, Langley was highly commended.

Drop-Off Site User of the Year went to Fantasy Flooring Ltd and County Contract Flooring Ltd, last year’s winner, was highly commended. Middlesex Flooring Ltd took Project of the Year award and Midlands Flooring Ltd was highly commended. Andy Nichols of HFD Bridgend was named Recofloor Champion and Andy Hardy of Premier Carpets and Flooring was highly commended. Whilst, Greatest Improver went to Lee Floorstok of Liverpool for their 432% increase in tonnage collected compared to the previous year. PFL Dublin and Fitwell Flooring, Redruth took second and third places respectively.

Branagan Flooring Services Ltd scooped the Brand Ambassador award while Best Newcomer went to CT Flooring Ltd. Lyndon Simms, CT Flooring Director said: “We were constantly filling skips with waste flooring, so after being introduced to Recofloor by our distributor we decided to give it a try. Since then it’s worked wonders, and everybody’s been very supportive. They’ve given us all the help we need and encouraged us to come to the awards. Last year, we collected about 11.5 tonnes and used between a third and a half fewer skips.”

The Longstanding Service Award was presented to Reform Flooring Ltd for their ‘consistency and commitment’ since joining Recofloor in 2009, collecting 84 tonnes of good quality flooring. The Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to Birch Distribution.

To mark Recofloor’s 10th anniversary, a new award to recognise excellence in environmental outlook, the Lee Harvey Award was presented to Anthony Francis, Managing Director of Mayfield Floors whose firm has been going ‘from strength to strength’ within Recofloor and fully embraced recycling. Anthony said: “I am proud and honoured to receive this award, which recognises the achievements of the whole team.”

Material collected by Recofloor’s members is recycled back into products, including new flooring, which benefits the environment and can reduce collectors’ waste disposal costs by up to 70%.

Highlighting the scheme’s decade of success, Recofloor’s Marketing and Events Officer, Joe Gardner, praised members’ efforts, saying: “We’ve been at the forefront of sustainability in the flooring sector; there is nothing else like this in our sector. That is all down to you having the initiative to go out, be incredible recyclers and push sustainability within the construction and flooring sectors.”

He outlined a host of celebratory events for 2019, including the ‘#ItsBIN10Years’ Gold Bin prize draw and the 10 Year Tour visiting distributors and contractors nationwide. Taking the concept further, Recofloor has also started a year-long trial with adhesive manufacturer F Ball to recycle their plastic buckets and bottles.