Environmentally Preferred

Environmentally Preferred Flooring

environmentally-preffered-flooring

At Polyflor, we strive to be an environmentally and economically sustainable business, recycling and reducing waste and being as carbon neutral as possible. Our new product development continues to focus on reducing environmental impact by providing a high level of durability, reliability, ease of maintenance and safe disposal. Whilst choosing Environmentally Preferable Flooring from Polyflor, it is also important to be assured that this means zero compromise in choice and the function of the product.

GreenTag

greentag

The Ecospecifier Global GreenTagCertTM scheme operated by Global GreenTag P/L is a third party ecolabel program that rates sustainable products for the built environment. Polyflor’s many products certified under the scheme in Australia and New Zealand, with Polyflor homogeneous PUR ranges typically in the top 50% of resilient finishes based on their GreenTag Ecopoints. Assessment of products is based on a life cycle approach and measuring the impact of products, including in the following critical areas:

  • Reduction of Energy and Greenhouse Gases
  • Habitat and Land Degradation
  • Resource Depletion and Efficiency
  • Occupant and Contractor Health & Conditions
  • Toxicity to Land, Air and Water

Due to the strong performance in minimising the environmental impact in these categories, Polyflor products are listed on the Ecospecifier database (www.ecospecifier.com.au) of environmentally preferable building materials, providing architects, designers and specifiers an easier and effective way to select an environmentally sustainable floorcovering. Furthermore, Polyflor was the first commercial vinyl flooring organisation to achieve Ecospecifier’s GreenTag LCARate certification across all of its key ranges and achieves GreenRate level A, scoring maximum points in the Materials-’Sustainable Products’ and IEQ-VOC sections of the Green Star rating tools.

Recofloor

recoflor

Polyflor is a cofounding and funding member of Recofloor, the industry’s leading vinyl take-back scheme for recycling end of life post-consumer vinyl flooring. Through Recofloor, Polyflor can recycle smooth and safety installation off-cuts, smooth uplifted flooring and old stock roll-end and samples which would normally end up in landfill. This material is recovered and recycled into new flooring or other useful products such as traffic cones. Polyflor Australia and New Zealand have recycled 112 tonnes and globally 2,660 tonnes of vinyl flooring to date. This volume equals nearly 886,333m² or 22,158 x 20m rolls – enough vinyl flooring waste to cover 122 football pitches. This is a saving of over 2,000 tonnes of CO₂ which equates to driving 48 times round the equator or taking 100 cars off the road for a year.

100% Recyclable

recy

Most of Polyflor’s product ranges are 100% recyclable with many of the floor coverings containing up to 40% recycled content. The ranges are recycled through the Recofloor Vinyl Take-Back Scheme to which the vinyl can be recycled many times over without losing its performance and functionality.

Phthalate Free / Bio Based Plasticisers

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bio

Polyflor’s Expona and Camaro LVT flooring collections are now produced phthalate free and/or contain bio-based plasticisers.

(except for recycled content)

Environmental Product Declaration

epd

Environmental Product Declarations (EPD’s) provide completely transparent information about Polyflor products and their impact on the environment. In 2012 Polyflor were part of the ERFMI EN 15804 generic data set for creation of industry EPD’s which were successfully, independently verified by IBU. All generic and product specific EPD’s are written to the rules and standards according to EN 15804 and ISO 14025.

ResiLoop

ResiLoop

About ResiLoop ResiLoop is an initiative of ARFA to research and design an Australian resilient flooring product stewardship scheme. The project received funding from the Australian Government through the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund. ResiLoop has developed a business case, supported by proof of concept trials, for a national scheme supported by the industry in Australia. Based on material flow analysis of locally made and imported products consumed in the domestic market, it will address the logistics of recovering and sorting flooring waste streams, development of suitable recycling technologies and processes to produce recyclate of optimal quality, and identification and development of viable end markets for the material in Australia.