Andrew Jackson discusses how circular economy principles can be applied to resilient flooring to reduce waste and conserve resource.
THE resilient flooring category includes vinyl flooring, homogeneous and heterogeneous sheet products, linoleum, rubber and cork flooring, and was reportedly worth around $30 million globally in 2023. Vinyl flooring, which includes luxury vinyl tile (LVT), constitutes a large portion of this market owing to its durability, affordability, and design flexibility.
While technically vinyl-based flooring can be recycled up to seven times without loss of performance, its actual recycling rate remains disappointingly low. The EU-funded Circular Flooring project reports that ‘only recycling rates of 20% have been achieved so far, while a large percentage of PVC waste is still landfilled or incinerated.’
This low rate is primarily owing to the challenges associated with recycling vinyl flooring, such as material complexity and difficulties in separation, contaminants complicating the recycling process and logistic and economic hurdles.
Closing the loop
Projects like circular flooring are researching new closed loop recycling methods to address these issues for vinyl-based floor coverings, including chemical rather than traditional mechanical recycling processes.
Closed loop recycling involves materials being recycled and reused as raw materials to produce new products of the same type. For example, old vinyl flooring is recycled into new flooring. This approach keeps materials within the same product cycle, reducing the need for additional virgin resources.
In contrast, open loop recycling converts recycled materials into different types of products. For instance, recycled vinyl flooring might be used to produce plastic pipes or road barriers. Whilst this approach diverts waste from landfill, it does not eliminate the demand for virgin raw materials in flooring production.
So what else can be done towards effective lifecycle management of resilient flooring?
Cradle-to-Cradle Certified
Cradle-to-Cradle certification is a globally recognised standard verifying products as safe, circular, and responsibly made. The Cradle-to-Cradle Certified product standard assesses products across five categories of sustainability performance including material health, circularity and clean air and climate protection.
Several flooring manufacturers have achieved C2C certification, demonstrating their commitment to sustainability and end of life recyclability, including Shaw Contract EMEA’s EcoWorx, the first PVC-free carpet tile and first flooring product to be Cradle-to-Cradle Certified.
Manufacturer return schemes
Many flooring manufacturers are implementing return schemes to facilitate the recycling of their products. These programmes allow customers to return offcuts and used flooring to manufacturers, who then process it for recycling or reuse.
Shaw Contract EMEA has recently become an official Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) Flooring Partner, creating the largest carpet tile reuse network in the UK. Used carpet tiles are transported to and graded at one of SATCoL’s network of 40 donation centres before being made available to housing associations and local authorities for reuse, meaning that carpet tile is diverted away from landfill to support vulnerable communities.
This new service expands our re[TURN] Reclamation Programme for flooring, and is also open to carpet tile products from other manufacturers that, unlike Shaw Contract products, cannot be closed loop recycled at the end of their life.
Product innovation
Rethinking product formulation is another approach. Some vinyl-based flooring manufacturers are expanding the use of recycled content within their products, as well as the use of bio-based PVC made from plant-based raw materials rather than standard fossil fuel-derived product.
And some manufacturers are removing PVC from flooring altogether. Our new EcoWorx Resilient is a PVC-free non-vinyl resilient flooring product with all the performance and aesthetic attributes of LVT flooring but which is fully closed loop recyclable. At the end of its useful life, EcoWorx Resilient can be made into new EcoWorx carpet tile through our re[TURN] Reclamation Programme — making it a truly circular flooring product.
The way ahead
There is no single ‘silver bullet’ solution to closing the loop on commercial resilient flooring. It’s a complex challenge requiring technical advances in material chemistry and recycling processes, along with changes in industry practice for installation, logistics and reuse.
However, Shaw Contract EMEA’s initiatives in achieving Cradle-to-Cradle Certification, implementing return schemes, and developing PVC-free flooring products highlight practical ways forward.
It’s time for the industry to embrace these changes, collaborate on new solutions and drive forward towards a more sustainable, circular future.
020 7961 4120
infouk@shawcontract.com
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Andrew Jackson is business development director, Shaw Contract EMEA