Tarkett sets up ReStart for vinyl flooring

Solon, Ohio-based flooring producer Tarkett North America says that with its luxury vinyl tile (LVT) product line having captured growing market share over the past 15 years, it has put in place a system to give reclaimed LVT new life as older vinyl tile floors are replaced.

Tarkett estimates LVT’s share of the "resilient flooring market" has grown from 10 percent to 40 percent in the past 15 years. With some of those early LVT installations ready to be replaced, Tarkett sought a collaborative solution as to how to handle discarded LVT for recycling.

“Through our ReStart take-back and recycling program, we’ve been working for decades to build a circular economy where nothing goes to waste,” says Rachel Palopoli, Tarkett North America’s director of circular economy. “Sometimes that calls for creative solutions. If we can't find a home for old flooring material and turn it back into new flooring, we make sure that we find someone who can use it.”

Tarkett found its solution for reclaimed LVT in a partnership with Avery Automats, a manufacturer of automotive carpet and all-weather floor mats with a production facility in Dalton, Georgia.

Since partnering with Avery Automats in 2022, every pound of postuse LVT flooring that has come to Tarkett’s ReStart program has been recycled into new automotive products, according to Tarkett.

“It is amazing to be able to work with partners that can use old floors as a raw material and turn it into great, long-lasting products,” Palopoli says. “Our No. 1 goal with ReStart is to avoid sending any material to a landfill, because those landfills actually can release harmful chemicals into our air, water and soil.”

Tarkett says the collaboration represents a pivotal step in its commitment to reducing waste and building a circular economy. Palopoli calls it just the start of the company’s effort to be involved in a more sustainable future.

In 2024, Tarkett North America's ReStart program diverted from landfill some 1,050 tons of old flooring materials. (Tarket North America is part of the France-based Tarkett Group.)

“We’ll keep looking for the next innovative step forward, because at Tarkett, ‘Every step matters,’” Palopoli says, citing a corporate sustainability program slogan.