Evalution Flooring Achieves Another Green First for South Africa

Evalution
Flooring has embarked on the first phase of a sustainability project that will
be the first of its kind in South Africa and will enable zero waste in the
luxury vinyl tile (LVT) flooring arena. As part of its quest to curb its carbon
footprint, the GreenTag Certified vinyl flooring supplier has teamed up with
Recycle 4 Africa Waste Management (R4AWM) to recycle LVT offcuts and uplifts by
transforming them into eco-bricks, pavers and potentially other re-usable
products in the future.

Evalution Flooring
founder, Eva Kaiser, says: “Up until now there had not been a way to recycle
the vinyl due to the many layers that make up the product. The first brick has
been made completely out of recycled waste, including plastic that can’t
currently be recycled and would have landed up in landfill. Unlike other
eco-bricks, no sand or cement has been added. The brick has been tested and was found to have no
leaching and no emissions. It also has a compressive strength of 15 MPa  –
higher than the average 5.2 MPa of concrete bricks.  Plus, it is fire and
rodent resistant. The product will soon be tested officially by the National
Home Builders Registration Council to obtain certification for use in the
building industry.

“There’s
plenty of LVT all around South Africa and we are currently working on how to
logistically get all this material to a central point without adding to the
carbon footprint. We are also exploring how to finance this massive project.
While we might not be able to supply the market with eco-blocks just yet, the
most important thing is that there is now a solution for directing LVT away
from landfill.”

Director of
Waste Management at R4AWM, Debbie Sharp, adds: “Long-term, it would be ideal
for companies to combine their feedstock, and for R4AWM to provide them with
containerised waste management units which house all the necessary equipment to
process LVT waste and enable them to manufacture the eco-bricks on site. By
providing companies with this technology, we hope to minimise all facets of
waste, and divert it from landfill sites.”

“It is through such thinking that the industry is inspired
to think innovatively about how it uses waste differently and gainfully,” says
Grahame Cruickshanks Managing Executive: Market Engagement at Green Building
Council South Africa.

Kaiser
shares that Evalution Flooring is working hard towards the sustainability of
its LVT flooring over its entire life cycle.  “We have the first – and
currently the only – GreenTag Certified LVT flooring products in South Africa
in both our Amtico and mFlor ranges. Our Amtico Spacia and Amtico Spacia
Acoustic flooring products have achieved a Level B rating, while the Amtico
First, mFlor 25-05 and mFlor 20-03 LVTs have achieved Level C status. What this
means is that Level B Certification will achieve 85% of the points required by
the Green Building Council for a Green Star Rating for internal finishes, while
Level C Certification will achieve 75%. GreenTag Certification is important as the
process involves the entire supply chain from the ingredients to the final
product, including all sustainable practices throughout the production
process.”

“Over the past eleven years, Green Building Council South
Africa has been on a sustainability journey to advance the transformation of
the South African built environment and construction sectors and it is
encouraging to mark this Green Star Rating for internal finishes with Evalution
Flooring,” adds Cruickshanks.

“This is a
break-through!  We are so excited to be introducing this new way of
recycling LVTs. Although the project is in its infancy and much still needs to
be done, we are confident it can be achieved,” concludes Kaiser.

For more
information about Evalution and R4AWM please visit http://evalution.co.za and www.r4awm.com respectively.