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Mannington Commercial Launches Vinyl Tile Recycling Initiative

More than a billion pounds of vinyl composition tile end up in American landfills every year.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 5/25/2009 12:00:00 AM

Mannington Commercial is expanding the reach of its two-year-old LOOP carpet recycling program with a new initiative to reclaim and recycle vinyl composition tile.

The floorcovering manufacturer partnered with a regional reclamation company near its Salem, New Jersey facility to recover some of the billion-plus pounds of VCT that end up in American landfills every year. Mannington Commercial will then recycle the VCT and use it as post-consumer content in new tile. Beginning June 1, all of Mannington's premium tile products will contain 25 percent post-consumer content.

According to John Emmons, director of commercial manufacturing at Mannington, the company has already recycled two million pounds of VCT. But he estimates that one year from now, the figure will rise to 19 million as a result of this new initiative. "The beauty of this type of flooring is that it can be torn up and recycled forever," says Emmons. "As our capabilities grow, tile that is cycled back through our process will increase in its post-consumer recycled content."

Mannington vice president Dave Kitts says the manufacturer will take back tile from renovation sites within a 500 mile radius of its New Jersey facilities during the program’s inaugural year. “As we become more and more efficient at incorporating the recycled tile as a material, we will create opportunities to increase the amount of recycled content and expand the use to other products," says Kitts.

Images courtesy of Mannington Commercial.