The Floor Show, a business unit of Qualico, recently announced their partnership with a Paris-based world leader in flooring and sports surface solutions, Tarkett. The Floor Show becomes one of the first of Tarkett’s Recycling Allies in its premiere flooring recycling program called ReStart.

“One of our motivations for action at Qualico is building sustainably. When it comes to building sustainably, we are always looking for new, progressive ways to achieve that goal,” said David Eggerman, Regional Vice-President, Manitoba & Saskatchewan. “Part of building in a sustainable way also encompasses what we do with the excess material after, and if we can reduce the amount that goes back into landfills then that will only help Qualico build better cities.”

Through the ReStart program, excess flooring that is not used at the end of a build is returned to Tarkett’s facilities and turned into high-quality raw material to produce brand new flooring. The program also prevents cut-offs from ending up in the landfill or incinerator. Many commercial flooring products are eligible for the ReStart program. The Floor Show carries a wide variety of Tarkett products, making them an ideal partner for the program.

“At Tarkett, we made a commitment to become a leader in transformative flooring solutions and we are motivated by this to create flooring and sports surfaces that benefit people and the planet,” said Rachel Palopoli, Director Circular Economy, Tarkett. “One of our long-term goals is to triple the share of recycled raw materials used from 10% to 30% by 2030 and we think our partnership with The Floor Show will help us in achieving that goal.”

To give some context to the recycling potential of the ReStart program, The Floor Show participated in a project at the Selkirk Regional Health Centre in Manitoba that recycled 6,978 lbs of Tarkett product offcuts from the install process that were candidates for the program. Without this program and compliance and allyship with companies like The Floor Show, this volume of waste would have been destined for the landfill.

“I’ve been in the industry for a long time, and I have seen too much flooring product go to waste over the years. It’s time we do something about it,” said Dan Schille, Vice-President of The Floor Show. “There are other flooring recycling programs out there, but we are confident in the amount from Tarkett that gets repurposed back into the circular economy.”