A company has opened the country’s first specialised carpet recycling plant.
Reeds Carpets, a leading supplier of commercial floor coverings to the exhibition trade, has invested around £500,000 in establishing the new plant on Torrington Avenue in the city which will save more than 1,000 tonnes of carpeting each year ending in landfill sites.
Its subsidiary Reeds Carpet Recycling has worked for three years on the project with the Polymer Cluster project at Warwick University.
Reeds was assisted into the new unit on the Trading Estate by Wright Hassall.
Clare Reed, managing director of Reeds Carpet Recycling, said: “Our group supplies around two million square feet of our EVO-RIB carpet to all kinds of exhibitions and events.
“At present, recycling costs significantly more than the rate charged for landfill, but over coming years those figures will get closer and closer. Our industry is going to have to accept more stringent environmental safeguards.
“Companies keep going to landfill, and the cost per tonne is rising all the time. It involves a change of mind-set at all operational levels.
“We have also launched a collection service for amounts of 2,000 sq m and over which have been used within a 150-mile radius of Coventry. Contractors can also return any EVO-RIB carpeting direct to our recycling plant, where it will be recycled without charge.
“As far as we are aware our carpet is still the only genuinely proven recyclable product used, and disposed of, in the UK.”
Originally it was thought that waste EVO-RIB carpet would only be recycled as black polypropylene pellets for use in second-grade plastics but advances mean it can recycled to make carpet of the original colour effectively doubling a carpet’s working life.
The expansion into the new unit was handled by the commercial property team of Midland law firm Wright Hassall, which has worked for the Reeds Carpets for more than 20 years.
Partner Julia Whitby said: “Reed Carpets has always been a very progressive company and is a market leader in its field. IT has been very satisfying to see it expand over the years and this is a particularly exciting innovation.”
