Nutland Carpet Accessories is an independent family run business, distributing commercial flooring, carpets, vinyl and flooring accessories to the flooring trade. The company has been extremely supportive throughout their lengthy affiliation with Recofloor and use the scheme to its full potential.
Here, James Smith, Managing Director, explains what their involvement with Recofloor means for their business.
1: How long have you run a Recofloor drop-off point?
We joined the scheme in November 2009, virtually from the scheme’s inception, and have been consistent collectors ever since.
2: How much vinyl have you collected over the years?
We are proud to have collected 102 tonnes; that’s a lot of waste vinyl flooring diverted from landfill to protect the environment.
3: What do you think makes you so successful as a collector – how do you promote Recofloor and encourage your trade customers to bring their waste material to the drop off point?
Customer service is paramount to us. We are a family run business and have special relationships with our customers. By providing the bins we are helping them with their waste management and save them time on having to visit local recycling centres.
We regularly promote the use of our bins in our monthly newsletter, remind them of the scheme on our Facebook and Instagram accounts, and when our customers buy the vinyl, we remind them that we have the bins for their use too.
4: What does running a Recofloor drop-off point involve on a day-today basis?
We monitor the use of the bins daily, making sure that the contents remain dry so that the material can be recycled effectively. We also lock them each evening to protect them and prevent fly tipping.
5: How do trade customers get started as drop-off point users?
When they buy vinyl from us, we explain how the scheme works and remind them that the two Recofloor bins are there for their use.
6: What would you say to other distributors considering setting up a Recofloor drop- off point?
I’d suggest that they go ahead and do it. Recofloor has been an excellent supportive partner to us; the scheme was easy to set up and it is easy to manage. The scheme is very popular with our customers. We should all be doing our bit to reduce the amount of waste heading to landfill sites.
7: What other sustainability initiatives do you operate within the business?
We recycle everything we can, we buy recycled where possible and we even use plant-based cleaning products on the premises. We offer a recycle scheme for one of our adhesive suppliers, which also has a recycle bin on our forecourts. We have a cardboard-only industrial bin for customer use.
We are fully committed to reducing our carbon footprint where we can.
8: What more do you think the flooring industry as a whole could do to improve sustainability?
As a family run distributor, we take great pride in doing our part to reduce the environmental impact of our operations by being part of innovative recycling schemes like this and are fully committed to encourage more manufacturers to join Recofloor and follow Altro and Polyflor’s lead.
It is great to see some of the large UK based flooring companies taking the initiative and leading the way.
9: What’s been the best thing for your business about being a Recofloor member?
Knowing that 102 tonnes of waste vinyl flooring has not made it into landfill!
10: Can you think of anything we could change that would make Recofloor even better?
No, the scheme works perfectly well for us.
