Eco-friendly building materials are now essential for any new home construction or repair and Luxury plank flooring is no different from that.
Vinyl flooring is the fastest-growing type of flooring and is growing in popularity among homeowners and interior designers. Due to how reasonably priced it is, it is great for both household and business uses.
It also comes in a variety of distinctive styles and is highly strong; it can survive for up to 10 to 20 years or longer.
But if you’re wondering whether the vinyl plank you select for your home will be recyclable once its useful life is through, keep reading because we’ll go into more depth about that in today’s post.
What Is the Vinyl Flooring Made Of?
Knowing the materials that something is constructed of provides us with a solid place to start when evaluating its ability to be recycled.
Vinyl flooring is a product made of numerous layers of various materials including PVC plastics that are fused together to create a floor covering that is incredibly durable, useful, and reasonably priced. It comes in a range of different shapes to match the appearance of your home.
Vinyl Flooring: Is It Harmful to The Environment?
Although vinyl flooring adds a lovely finishing touch to our houses, it is still comprised of plastic, which is the main contributor to plastic waste, a major environmental problem.
Sadly, because it was made by humans, the substance will not decompose and revert to its natural state. It must be recycled in some form in order to prevent it from sitting in a landfill for hundreds of years.
Can Vinyl Flooring Be Recycled?
The fact is that vinyl flooring can all be recycled, and vinyl plank flooring is no exception. It is not only possible to recycle it in a broad sense, but you can also recycle it by repurposing old flooring.
However, Vinyl flooring cannot be recycled as easily as plastics, despite the fact that this is common information. Finding a recycling facility for it, unfortunately, is one of the biggest issues.
Issues With Vinyl Recycling
To be profitable, recycling facilities need a consistent flow of recyclable materials. But because PVC items are rarely recycled, there aren’t many vinyl recycling facilities in most places.
Additionally, vinyl flooring has a weak economy, which makes recycling for both consumers and recycling facilities challenging.
As vinyl flooring is made up of PVC, it cannot be recycled with other plastics due to the possibility of contamination. If you can locate a recycling facility that would accept them, they can be turned into other vinyl items.
Plastics like vinyl are notoriously difficult to recycle. But vinyl flooring could be ground into pellets, which can then be melted to make new vinyl products.
Additionally, vinyl products can be recycled up to eight times. This is due to the fact that recycling vinyl has no impact on the molecules’ chain length.
Conclusion
Yes, vinyl flooring can be recycled, but it may be challenging to locate vinyl recyclers. However, if you put in a little effort, you will eventually find someone.
