We are very pleased to have been featured in Contract Flooring Journal’s Sustainability Guide where we have been praised for our commitment to reducing the levels of VOCs emissions that come from the manufacture and installation of industrial flooring.

You can read the whole article here – in PDF format – or, to save you time, here is a transcript from the original Contract Flooring Journal article:

From Contract Flooring Journal Sustainability Guide 2016:

“Ecotile describes its challenge as being able to produce a flooring solution that had minimal impact on the environment and that overcame the issues and concerns encountered when using traditional flooring alternatives.

The Company sees its objectives as to significantly reduce the level of VOC emissions that result from the manufacture and installation of flooring; and to decrease the number of carbon miles required to complete and installation and eliminate all waste ensuring that every kilogram of material, including production waste, off-cuts from installations and the flooring itself could be and would be 100% recycled.

To achieve these objectives Ecotile had to:

• Significantly reduce the energy consumed during manufacture
• Design a product that could be laid without the need for gluing, a primary source of VOC emissions
• Overcome the requirement for surface preparation including screed and levelling
• Produce a product that retained a financial value that therefore made it attractive and practical to recycle and reprocess
• Was commercially competitive in price and appealing to the designer and end-user

The solution was to develop a new manufacturing process that allowed it to optimise the use of recycled material process that allowed it to optimise the use of recycled material and significantly reduce the energy required to produce the tiles. Finally it implemented a system and procedure to ensure that the tiles it made could and would be recycled going forward.

HOW HAS THAT OBJECTIVE BEEN ACHIEVED?
1: The design, construction and thickness of the tile means that it can be laid without the need for gluing, surface preparationor DPM. By eliminating these three requirements the VOC emissions and cross contamination have been eliminated, leaving a tile that retains an intrinsic raw material value that is therefore an attractive recycling proposition. Furthermore by removing the need for adhesive and floor preparation the tile dramatically reduces the amount of time, the cost and the level of disruption normally associated with traditional flooring installations.

2: Ecotile developed an entirely new manufacturing process. This allows it to use a core of up to 100% recycled material which is then enveloped by either virgin plastic outer layer if a colour is required or a 100 or more recycled outer envelope if manufacturing grey or black tiles.

3: The outer layer allows it to retain the aesthetic appearance of the tile whilst the recycled core provides greater resistance to indentation and improved thermal stability. Approximately 90% of the recycled material it uses is sourced from post-consumer vinyl flooring that has been recycled via the EU’s RecoVinyl scheme.

4: The balance comes from its own recycling of post-production waste, off-cuts from installations and our guaranteed ecotile buy-back programme where it will reprocess all Ecotile floor tiles once they have reached the end of their life.

5: The twin shot injection moulding process reportedly requires far less energy than traditional injection moulding processes resulting in an energy consumption saving of approximately 60%.

Summary environmental benefits:

• Either a 100% or 60% recycled material content subject to colour choice
• Twin shot injection moulding process that uses virgin or recycled plastic to form the outer skin of the tile and recycled material to create the central core
• Virgin or recycled plastic outer skin provides cosmetic, hard wearing aesthetic appearance
• Recycled core is a slightly harder material that delivers greater resistance to indentation and improved thermal stability

In most instances the tile will NOT require:

• Gluing — Zero VOC emissions, lower installation cost, easier to lift, recycle or reuse
• Subfloor preparation — Screed or levelling compound — Zero VOC emissions, lower installation cost, shorter install time, lower carbon miles

Financial benefits:

• Eliminates the requirement for adhesive, floor preparation and specialist installation skills saving time and money
• Quicker to install than traditional types of vinyl or rubber flooring, less disruption (no need to clear the area of benches, equipment etc., or to stop production/use of the area, can be installed in real time
• Guaranteed buy-back scheme offered on all Ecotile products. At the end of their useful life it will buy back the tiles at the current economic value of waste/ recycled PVC (circa £4.50 to £5.50sq m)
• Anticipated lifespan: 25 years plus.”

ENDS

Lucinda OReilly

Lucinda O’Reilly, Exports & Marketing Director is an integral part of the team that has grown Ecotile Flooring in to the successful manufacturing business it is today. Over the last 20 years she has successfully employed her skills in sales and marketing to ensure Ecotile Flooring is recognised as the market leading manufacturer of PVC interlocking floor tiles. Lucinda’s love of travel means the Ecotile brand is dominant all over Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia and India.

To ensure compliance with export regulations Lucinda has gained accreditations from the Chamber of Commerce in Incoterms & Export Licence Controls and Export Procedures & Documentation and has completed the Institute of Export course on Incoterms 2020. She is a member of the Institute of Export, was a finalist in the Natwest Open to Export competition in 2018 and was instrumental in Ecotile Flooring winning a Queen’s Enterprise for International Trade in 2017. Lucinda has recently been interviewed by BBC News and Channel 4 News for her insights on Brexit and is an Export Champion for the Department for International Trade.