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CONTRACTORS’ VIEW

Jonathan Wells, Contracts Manager at when it comes to specifying a product,” says “A greater focus on plastics recycling
Leicester-based J&S Flooring, believes Jonathan Wells. “We understand that they will would be very positive, such as for example
that, for all the talk about sustainability, require a particular look, but they sometimes a collaboration between manufacturers who
there is still a very long way to go before need to be more aware of the implications of use the same type of plastics from adhesive
the contract flooring industry can say it their decisions.” containers to smoothing compound liquid
has really got to grips with this issue and J&S Flooring was founded in 1976, so has containers. This would enable the recycling of
is making a meaningful contribution to seen the development of interest in recycling containers from any of the main manufacturers
national sustainability goals. and sustainability right from the start. Jonathan in one mixed recycle bin. Contractors throw
Jonathan quotes the example of a recent Wells believes contractors are quite limited in
project his company was involved in. This was what they can do. They normally do not have away thousands of smoothing compound 5
a large university library where 4,500sqm of the space to store large quantities of uplifted litre liquid containers per year, for instance,
carpet tiles were to be replaced. J&S advised flooring products or adhesive containers. They not to mention large quantities of old adhesive
that a particular carpet tile from a major British also often don’t have the budget or the time to buckets.”
manufacturer should be used, who undertook deal with this waste. “Can manufacturers’ schemes be
to take back all the uplifted flooring into their But what he thinks would make a extended? At the moment everything is very
own recycling scheme, which would have difference would be if manufacturers step up disjointed, which is holding us back. There has
avoided this large amount of carpet tiles going and work together more closely on two fronts. to be a workable and realistic way of bringing
into landfill. Firstly they need to accelerate the adoption all this together, across different sectors –
The client however chose a tile of a slightly of recycled materials into their products and manufacturing, distributing and contracting.
different colour from another manufacturer, secondly they need to pool their resources “In the meantime I always tell my fitters
who did not operate such a scheme, resulting and efforts into more effective recycling to use the recycling bins, if available, but this
in all the uplifted carpet tiles going to landfill. schemes, enabling companies to recycle needs to become more part of the industry
“This pattern is still repeated up and down uplifted products made by manufacturers culture, part of the training programmes that
the country many times unfortunately,” says other than themselves. new entrants to our industry go through.”
Jonathan Wells. “The amount of carpet tiles “This would be a fantastic thing,” says At the end of the day, as well as being
still going into landfill is shocking frankly, and Jonathan Wells. “Schemes such as Recofloor
quite surprising, given the amount of time are great, but they are still too small. We need the moral thing to do, improvement on
we have been talking about recycling in this to find a way of adopting the principles behind sustainability is also a sales technique. The
industry.” Recofloor on a truly industry-wide basis. issue is set to stay top of the agenda, and
This does show that education is required Regarding adhesives, at the moment even the contractors who can show that they are being
at all levels from the flooring contractors largest distributors might only operate bins proactive will be the ones who will be most
through to the clients themselves. from a single adhesive manufacturer. It’s the successful in the battle for the sales of the
“Ultimately it’s down to the client of course, same with the latex smoothing compounds. future.
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CFA Guide to Sustainability 2025/26