Tarkett Celebrates Recycling, Honors Industry Leaders During Annual ReStart Awards

Tarkett, the worldwide leader in innovative and sustainable flooring and sports surface solutions, recently announced the winners of its ReStart Award. The award is presented annually to honor the architect, designer, installer, distributor, and/or end user whose project has successfully diverted the largest quantity of flooring from landfills using the company’s ReStart Recycling and Reclamation Program.

This year’s award recipients—Walmart, Linron Company, and M. Frank Higgins—were recognized during the company’s second annual Sustainability Summit in Cleveland.

"ReStart allows building owners and specifiers to make environmental responsibility a practical part of the way they do business,” said Diane Martel, vice president, environmental planning and strategy for Tarkett. “Often it is costly to remove waste from the job site, but with ReStart they are getting a massive amount of flooring job scrap off the site at no additional cost, while minimizing the impact on the environment."

More than seven years ago, Walmart initiated recycling with Tarkett, through its distributor Linron Company, focusing on returning Azrock vinyl composition tile to its origin to avoid landfill and recycling the product into new tile. In less than one year, Walmart, Linron, and Tarkett were able to collect more than 19 million pounds of reclaimed material. The companies also replaced cardboard containers with Super Sacks, which were easier to process and reusable.

Joe Jared, vice president, administration, for Tarkett, presented the award, which was accepted by James Schiely, senior construction manager at Walmart Corporate U.S. “Over the course of our relationship with Walmart, more than 91 million pounds of reclaimed materials have been returned to Tarkett,” Jared said. “Walmart has further developed a keen awareness and commitment to the environment and sustainability.”

A national leading distributor for retail chains, Linron Company accounted for 19.4 million pounds of recycled flooring. Linda Krienke, cofounder of the Linron Company, Ron Harris, cofounder of Linron Company, and Gilles de Beaumont, vice president business development, were in attendance to accept the award.

“The team at Linron is versatile, flexible, and reliable. The recycling of Azrock materials was new to Linron Company as well, and they were responsible for the operational changes necessary, adapting to the needs of our customer,” Jared said. “They focus on solution development no matter the circumstance—especially when it comes to recycling and environmental responsibility.”

Commercial flooring contractors with headquarters in Connecticut since 1952, M. Frank Higgins & Co. Inc., recycled over 96,000 pounds of flooring in 2013. The company specializes in healthcare and education commercial environments. Kathy and Steve Cloud, owners, accepted the award for the company.