Baird Family Hospital

Veitchi Flooring is one of the UK’s largest flooring contractors, working on projects of all types nationwide. The firm has a strong commitment to improving sustainability in the industry.

On being awarded the flooring contract for the project (located at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary), Veitchi recognised that offcut disposal would present a major environmental challenge. With 23,000 m2 of Polyflor vinyl to be laid, the typical 10% expectation for offcuts meant a likely project wastage of 2,300 m2 - an area similar to the size of 10 tennis courts.

Aware that vinyl is easily recyclable and having previously used Recofloor for collections of material from their own premises, Veitchi contacted the Recofloor team. It soon became clear that Recofloor’s straightforward onsite collection and recycling service was the obvious solution.

Main contractor Graham Construction immediately bought into the idea, while the green approach fitted perfectly with NHS Grampian’s Plan for the Future.

The first step was to agree where the Recofloor collection bins should be placed. Veitchi have a ‘good housekeeping’ ethos, so it was essential to ensure fitters could dispose of material easily as work progressed. Thanks to proactive support from Graham, a location plan was quickly agreed. The plan includes using telescopic forklifts to lift the bins to upper external levels, from where the bins can be wheeled into the building as needed.

Work is now well underway, and the fitters have been able to slot the collection process seamlessly into their daily routine. Three bin changeovers have taken place so far, booked and paid for via Recofloor’s simple online system.

A feature that has proved particularly useful is the fact that the bins are lockable. This gives Veitchi’s team full control of who uses the bins and what goes in them, preventing cross contamination.

All the vinyl collected is being taken back to Polyflor’s UK plant for sorting. It will then either be recycled into new Polyflor flooring or sent to a UK recycler for the production of traffic cones. So, in addition to diverting the waste from landfill, Veitchi is also ensuring precious raw materials are reused and helping reduce the project’s carbon footprint by around 8 tonnes.

As an added bonus, the cost of the Recofloor collections is significantly less than that of landfill disposal or skips, with costs for the 1,100lt metal Recofloor bins set at £17.50 per bin.