Armstrong recycles 100 million pounds of flooring | Sustainability

Sustainability

Monday, August 27, 2018

[Lancaster, Pa.] Armstrong Flooring has announced that it has recycled more than 100 million pounds of post-consumer flooring materials — keeping 50,000 tons of materials out of landfills.

“Sustainable consumption and production is about promoting resource and energy efficiency and that is exactly what our On&On Recycling Program does. It diverts material from the landfill and reduces resource use, degradation and pollution along the whole lifecycle,” said Amy Costello, sustainability manager, Armstrong Flooring. “The On&On Recycling Program enables our products to have lower environmental footprints while supporting our commitment to circular economy principles and closed-loop manufacturing.”

To date, the program has saved:
--1.3 billion gallons of water or 2.7 million bathtubs full of water
--44 million kg of greenhouse gases eliminated, which is equivalent to removing emissions from 25,000 cars
--154 million kWh of energy, or enough to power 12,000 homes for a year

Since 2009, the On&On Floor Recycling Program has offered commercial building owners and contractors an alternative to traditional disposal and a flexible, end-of-life recycling solution for resilient flooring products. What began as a recycling program for VCT has expanded into a comprehensive program that includes Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) and BioBased Tile (BBT), the company said.

According to the company, eligible flooring is recycled in a closed-loop, post-consumer stream with reclaimed material incorporated into new flooring products. Regional recycling facilities in California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Pennsylvania handle the reclamation process, which includes both Armstrong Flooring products and qualifying competitive flooring products from demolition and renovation projects.

“The program’s success would not have been possible without the establishment of key strategic partnerships with contractors, distributors, flooring installers and partnerships with major corporations such as Target, Walmart and Kroger that are committed to operating sustainably,” said Costello. For example, Armstrong Flooring partners with distributor Linron Company. Linron then works with its retail customers to promote and implement the Armstrong Flooring On&On Floor Recycling Program.

To learn more about how to participate in the On&On Recycling Program, please visit: www.armstrongflooring.com/reclaim