“Breakthrough” in safety floor recycling

Taking place at its manufacturing plant in Letchworth Garden City, the process has addressed the perceived difficulties with recycling safety flooring, which revolve around the abrasive nature of the aggregates used to make the flooring non-slip and durable.

Commenting on the company's success, its chief executive, Richard Kahn, said: “Evidently impossible means nothing at Altro, as many believed you could never recycle safety flooring.

“Through this innovative process, we believe we have taken the first steps towards truly sustainable safety flooring. We already use reclaimed glass in our products, and now we have introduced the recycled aggregate, with a range of products featuring recycled PVC content expected by the end of the year,” he added.

System

The new system breaks down processed waste flooring and separates it into its various component parts, recycling these back into safety flooring.

To achieve this, waste flooring is passed through a shredder and then through a number of screening tables which recover the aggregate and fibrous material.

The PVC is then granulated into 2mm granules, which are incorporated into new safety flooring during the manufacturing process alongside the waste aggregate.

Closed-loop

Following the introduction of the new process, Altro, which was established in 1919, is now working with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and Stockport-based polymer and PVC recycling company Axion Recycling to examine the potential to collect post installation waste from sites for recycling into safety flooring.

Mr Kahn explained: “Never a company to rest on its laurels, our next challenge is to address post consumer waste and turn it back into new flooring.

“This would create a 'closed-loop' of recycling as safety flooring is recycled back into safety flooring. This is viewed by exports as the ideal environmental solution for recycling as it makes the best use of resources and has a substantially lower carbon impact,” he added.