InterfaceFLOR, modular flooring, has signed a pan-European agreement with waste management specialist, SITA.
The two have joined forces to recover end-of-life carpet tiles from customers across Europe and maximise their use. Rather than being sent to landfill, the tiles will be returned to InterfaceFLOR to be re-used by the company’s social partners or fully recycled in to new carpet tiles.
In Europe alone, an estimated 30 million square metres of carbon intensive, oil based carpet tiles are sent to landfill or incinerated each year, which is both environmentally and financially unsustainable.
InterfaceFLOR has offered a take-back scheme for its products since 1995, called ReEntry, which has diverted more than 100,000 tonnes of used carpet from disposal globally.
“We are really excited to be scaling up our ReEntry programme with SITA’s logistics and recycling expertise,” said Lindsey Parnell, president/CEO InterfaceFLOR Europe, Middle East, Africa and India.
“Like us, they see what many classify as waste as a future raw material and a business opportunity. And at a time when commodities are in short supply and costs are spiralling, it is even more important than ever to make maximum use of what we have.
“Our ultimate aim is to close the materials loop, so that our used products become the raw materials for our new products, making us an entirely self-sufficient and sustainable business.”
InterfaceFLOR’s partnership with SITA will initially operate in The Netherlands, and will be expanded over the next 18 months to cover more of the EMEAI region.
Currently over 40% of total raw materials for InterfaceFLOR’s products are recycled or bio-based.