Recofloor Newsletter No. 2

Welcome to the second issue of the Recofloor newsletter.

Since the last issue the team has been busy with more and more companies signing up to the scheme and demand for collections rising.

With the scheme now well underway, the volumes of vinyl flooring collected for recycling are continuing to grow. To help maintain the momentum and provide an incentive to companies to segregate and collect more material, Recofloor has launched a new award scheme open to all participants. Read about the benefits of the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards in this issue.

Going For Gold!

Recofloor has launched an award scheme to reward members for the quality and volume of waste vinyl flooring material collected. Winners will receive either a Gold, Silver or Bronze award, depending on the amount of material collected. Recofloor will allocate a number of points per pallet of material collected, depending on the size of the company:

  • Small Companies (1 - 5 fitters) = 3 points per pallet
  • Medium companies (5 - 10 fitters) = 2 points per pallet
  • Large companies (10+ fitters, nationwide) = 1 point per pallet.

Logos, Stickers And PR For The Winners

If companies achieve one of the new Gold, Silver or Bronze awards, they will receive a certificate, a ‘Winner’s Logo’ to be used on stationery and websites, stickers for vans, PR in the Altro newsletter plus possible further PR in the trade and recycling press. The scheme will begin in January 2010 and winners of the awards will be announced in December 2010.

Commenting on the new award scheme, Recofloor Project Manager Jane Gardner says: “Currently, all participants are awarded a ‘Green’ certificate for taking part in the scheme. The Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will provide companies with additionalrecognition for their efforts to collect and segregate waste vinyl flooring material under the scheme.”

Mayfield Floors

There are already a number of ‘exemplar’ companies who take part in the Recofloor Scheme. Mayfield Floors, Stockport, has been participating in the scheme from the outset. The company collects considerable volumes of uplifted vinyl flooring and off-cuts from large-scale public sector contracts such as Local Authorities and Housing Associations. Recent contracts have included uplifting and replacing flooring in the hall, corridors, and Science laboratories at a large local comprehensive school and the hallways and offices at local council offices.

Managing Director Eric Francis explains how the company collect their material: “In our yard, we have at least 4 big bags at any one time. Our fitters collect uplifted flooring material, installation off-cuts and safety flooring and return at the end of each day to the yard to empty the waste material into the correct big bags and waste cardboard into a recycling collection bin. The Recofloor collection service is fantastic. When the four big bags are full, we just pick up the phone and they come and collect them. We always have 2 spare bags and if the bags are getting full, we can start filling the spares until the others are collected.”

Eric explains that participation in the Recofloor scheme has been beneficial by helping to ensure compliance with CHAS (Contractors Health & Safety Assessment Scheme) and by significantly reducing costs: “Recycling this flooring is saving us real money - the cost of a skip each week. We used to fill 3 every week, now we only need 2. It is fantastic to think we are saving all that material from going to landfill. I only wish the scheme had started sooner!” Jane Gardner adds: “Mayfield Floors was involved in the initial trial scheme and has continued throughout to regularly provide high quality, uncontaminated, segregated material.”

New Bags, New Bins

For easy collection of waste vinyl flooring material, Recofloor has introduced new colour-coded and clearly labelled collection bags that fitters can either take on out on jobs and fill on site or use in yards as collection points:

  • Orange - smooth, uplifted vinyl
  • Green - smooth flooring off-cuts
  • Blue - safety flooring off-cuts

New collection bins have been introduced at local distributors’ yards - look out for them!

Download a PDF version of the second issue of the Recofloor newsletter .