More about recycling & circularty
Some flooring manufacturers claim to have a high amount of recycled content in their products but this needs some clarification:
Classic linoleum, vinyl and rubber are made in a factory on a roll. By producing a roll it is to be cut to measure. The cutting losses in the factory are reused for next the rolls. This reusing is claimed as recycling but is basically virgin material.
Therefore: read EPD's thoroughly
Although more and more manufacturers claim to have recycling programs for their floorcoverings as an afterlife program the vast majority is either going to landfill or is incinerated. The reasons are numerous.
Gerlflor explains in its EPD for a Vinyl product:
‘Although it is technically possible to recycle 100% heterogenous vinyl flooring to create other products, this is not commonly applied by the customers, and as such the majority is sent to a landfill’
The majority of all resilient flooring is bonded to the subfloor by adhesives. Removal of old floorcoverings is done mechanically and residue of adhesives and cement are part of the total waste. Take back programs of manufacturers are only allowing clean, loose laid, phthalate free vinyl to be recycled. Since phthalate free vinyl is only recently on the market the majority of reclaimed vinyl is phthalate containing and is not accepted for recycling as a flooring product. Forbo, mentioning on their website that they want to collect the valuable old floor back has very strict conditions: only their Allure loose laid, clean, no adhesives, only in the Benelux and not free of charge. The general consumer will not be triggered by that and very likely send the waste to collecting depots for incineration.
The costs involved with the whole process of collecting and processing of the used vinyl floors costs are considerably higher than virgin material. With a very limited infrastructure worldwide for collecting used floorcovering we consider the amount of media attention drawn by the manufacturers as greenwashing.
Maybe in the future it will be possible, for now it is just for theatrics.
Another aspect of recycling used vinyl floors is that these products can only be down cycled and can never become the LVT as it was before. The mixture of the recycled vinyl can be used as an underlayer or backfill but never as the visual top layer of the LVT.
Rubber and Linoleum cannot technically be recycled as Vinyl since both products are polymerized and not thermoplastic.
Gerflor states in its EPD for Linoleum:
‘There is no take back program or reuse/recycle/energy recovery possibility for this product’
Forbo has recently reclaimed a large project of old linoleum to be recycled. Although this looks very favorable the reality is that linoleum cannot be recycled or reused like PVC. The only option is to grind and mill the old linoleum to a fine powder which can be used in new linoleum as filler. The whole procedure of this recycling has cost more energy and emissions than using the usual calcium carbonate, and abundantly available mineral. We believe that recycling only has a function or makes sense when you save valuable, nonrenewable raw materials, In this case it is just greenwashing and acting for the stage.