Over the past four years, the firm has fully embraced the UK’s vinyl flooring recycling initiative, putting it at the core of its overall Environmental & Sustainability programme.

Named Recofloor’s Distributor of the Year in 2012 (pictured right), Birch Distribution collected a record

7.5 tonnes of waste vinyl flooring collected at its three sites in Hull, Sheffield and Leeds last year thanks to general enthusiasm among the company and customers alike.

Collected material is sent back to flooring manufacturers and Recofloor founders, Altro and Polyflor for further processing. Clean offcuts are reprocessed back into new vinyl flooring. Smooth uplifted flooring is used to make traffic management products such as traffic cone bases and speed bumps.

Birch Distribution specialises in the supply and distribution of commercial and residential carpets, carpet tiles, vinyl and linoleum floor coverings, together with associated materials and accessories. It is one of the largest, independent distributors of its type in the UK.

Recofloor bins at its three sites (pictured below) accept waste vinyl off-cuts from fitters when they arrive to pick up new flooring and supplies. This provides a free, convenient and environmentally- responsible recycling route that also offers significant cost savings versus landfilling the material.

Birch Distribution’s directors say that, crucially, Recofloor membership has given them access to a well-organised outlet for their waste vinyl flooring that can now be recycled into new products, rather than being sent for energy from waste.

The firm is committed to developing the scheme further; whether through encouraging contractors and customers to collect flooring waste at their own premises, or being handled through facilities at its three Yorkshire depots.

Recofloor is discussed as part of Birch’s general customer care offer, and its benefits are being embraced, particularly, by Local Authority and Social Housing organisations that see the potential to enhance the sustainability of their projects and to benefit the local community at the same time.