London, England, October 9, 2006--The UK's national PVC plastic recycling support organization – Recovinyl – is backing a new trial recycling PVC flooring from hospitals, according to LetsRecycle.com
The PVC industry-funded organization is supporting Maidstone-based Tarkett-Marley Floors Ltd to take back PVC floor tiles that have been replaced from some of the larger hospitals in the UK.
Flooring waste from Addenbrookes Hospital is being sorted for transport to Tarkett's recycling plant in Luxembourg, where it is made into backing to be applied to new flooring and carpets at Tarkett Marley Floors' factory in Kent Hospitals in Coventry, Romford and Cambridge are already on the scheme, and if the trial is deemed a success, it will be expanded to smaller hospitals – and potentially retail outlets.
Contractors installing new flooring at hospitals will be provided with cages in which to collect the old PVC material. Collected material is taken to Tarkett-Marley's parent company, Tarkett, in Luxembourg.
Pete Thomas, environment and quality manager for Tarkett-Marley, said: "We are already working with major retailers, construction companies and PFI initiatives such as hospitals. We know there are significant quantities of material available for recycling."
Tarkett's PVC recycling plant plant in Luxembourg is capable of handling 30,000 tonnes of post-industrial flooring waste each year. Material reprocessed at the facility is turned into backing for either new vinyl flooring or PVC backed carpet.
