Recofloor’s 2013 Awards Event celebrates its flooring recycling champions

Recofloor, the UK’s vinyl flooring take-back scheme, celebrated the environmental commitment of its recycling champions at its annual Awards Event at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in March.

Flooring companies, contractors and distributors, who recycled 450 tonnes through the scheme in 2012, collected trophies and certificates in nine major award categories plus Gold and Silver groupings from guest speaker and Sky Sports presenter Gary Newbon.

Praising the sustained efforts of Recofloor’s 470 registered collectors, Project Manager Jane Gardner, said: "Communication across the entire flooring supply chain has been crucial to the scheme’s success and continues to drive these remarkable achievements, which represent a big step forward for the sector as a whole."

Since its 2009 inception by flooring manufacturers Altro and Polyflor, Recofloor 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. This total volume equals nearly 420,000m² or enough to cover 58 football pitches. This year’s collection target is 600 tonnes.

The Recofloor Awards are comprised principally from last year’s results, but they also recognise those collectors who have made significant contributions to the scheme in various ways.

Ampthill-based Axiom Group took Construction Project of the Year for recovering more than 37.5 tonnes of off-cuts over two years from the now-completed £400 million development of North Staffordshire Hospital in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Axiom, one of the UK’s leading floorcovering installers, worked with Recofloor to ensure maximum reduction of carbon impact for collections.

Hard work in pushing Recofloor’s environmental benefits to fitters and clients resulted in Mayfield Floors winning Contractor of the Year. Recofloor assisted the Stockport firm with CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) compliance and helped it to divert 15.5 tonnes from landfill in 2012. Mayfield also won a Gold Award for the third year running.

Anthony Francis, Mayfield’s Managing Director said: "I’m very honoured and proud to receive this award. Even though we do a lot, there’s still more that can be done. It’s important not to be complacent and to always strive to increase recycling tonnages where possible."

Distributor of the Year went to long-standing Recofloor supporter Nutland Carpets, whose two branches in Chandlers Ford and Poole bulked-up material to keep 16.25 tonnes out of landfill.

Joint winners of the Drop-off Site User of the Year award were Isle of Wight-based Abbotts Flooring and EC Flooring of Tottenham. This new category recognises collectors, nominated by shortlisted distributors, as using their drop-off point in an environmentally-friendly and efficient manner.

FITA, The Floor Industry Training Association, which provides courses for all floorlayers across the sector, took the Recofloor Specialist trophy for making the scheme an integral part of its curriculum.

Richard Catt, CEO of the Contract Flooring Association said: "It was great to win an award like this as it is further recognition of the hard work and leading role that FITA plays within the industry.

"We’ve been recycling any vinyl off-cuts for some time and always ensure we promote recycling to delegates as part of their experience at FITA."

Best Newcomer went to Ipswich-based Top Floors for their impressive commitment from the start, having collected two tonnes of waste from a range of projects in a very short time.

Kent Flooring Supplies scooped the Greatest Improvement Since Last Year prize, which celebrates the biggest year-on-year increase weighted by the size of the company concerned.

Martin Brown, Health, Safety and Environment Manager at distributor Carpet and Flooring, who has been instrumental in integrating the scheme into daily operations, was crowned Recofloor Champion. Jane said: "We were impressed with his commitment, ideas and foresight in seeing recycling as the future."

Key Floors of Hook in Hampshire collected the Outstanding Achievement award which recognised their efforts in using the scheme across a wide range of clients.
A total of 44 firms received Gold and Silver Awards, calculated by the tonnage collected in relation to the average number of fitters a company employs.

Gold Award winners were named as: Carpets ‘n’ Carpets; Hull Flooring; Ross Hughes Flooring; Mayfield Floors; Reform Flooring; Chelmer Group; Nutland Carpets; Kent Flooring Supplies; Headlam Scotland; Ashmount Flooring Supplies; 3D Flooring Supplies (Cardiff) and Wates Retail.

Silver Award winners were: Craftsman Flooring; N&S Flooring; Alsim Building Systems; Derwent Flooring; Alan Parker Flooring; Whitson Flooring; Northern Floorcraft; Astrosyn Flooring; Key Floors; Carpet and Flooring (B’ham); Avondale Construction; 3D Flooring Supplies (Swansea); The Axiom Group; Carpet and Flooring (Camberley); Beach Bros; CB Contracts; Floormart; Flooring Accessories; Volante; Fitwell Floors; The Apollo Group; MCD Wales; Branagan Flooring; Birch Distribution (Hull); PFL Ltd (Belfast); Pennine Flooring Supplies; Birch Distribution (Sheffield); STS Flooring (Orpington); BL Flooring Supplies; PFC Flooring Supplies; Carpet and Flooring (Bristol) and Clewarth & Webster.Gary Newbon added: "As someone who feels very strongly about recycling, I was thrilled to be invited to present these awards for such a worthwhile scheme. It’s a great success story!"