DALTON—Tandus Flooring has become the first company in the industry to have a fully certified reclamation center. The Tandus Flooring Environmental 
Center, located here and recognized as the first closed-loop reclamation center for flooring, is now certified through Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), and is the first of its kind anywhere, mill executives said.
SCS’ certification was created in early 2010 to recognize leading companies for their efficient and effective handling of materials, diverting waste from landfills and helping to reduce the amount of virgin materials consumed in manufacturing.
“The certification will shape the industry and the confidence among owners and specifiers concerning the process and inventory of reclaimed materials,” said Glen Hussmann, president and CEO, Tandus Flooring. “The Tandus Center is the only reclamation center guaranteed to conform with the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ‘Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims’.”
Specifiers can now require that materials produced through a certified reclamation center conform with LEED ‘Material and Resources’ criteria for recycled content in building products and meet material classification requirements of the SCS Recycled Content Certification.
“Further,” he added, “control of quantitative claims regarding material diverted from landfills and the ratio of useable material to waste sent to landfills, incineration or permanent storage, will now be transparent to the industry.”
Tandus Flooring was the first in the industry to launch a closed-loop recycling system in 1994—the last year the company sent any manufacturing waste to a landfill or incinerator. Since then, it has reclaimed and recycled more than 170 million pounds of flooring and manufacturing waste back into flooring which includes that of competitors.
“The innovative spirit of our company has led to some great accomplishments in the area of sustainability,” said Hussmann. “Because of the enormous amount of confusion in our industry regarding environmental claims, we will continue to invest the necessary time and resources to provide customers with third party certification regarding the environmental aspects of our processes and products.”
More than 200 employee hours were dedicated to data collection, meetings with SCS auditors and submission of detailed information for the requirements of the SCS certification. To maintain the certification, Tandus Flooring must demonstrate continued conformance with the SCS Standard, and will be audited on an annual basis both internally and externally.
For more on Tandus’ reclamation center, call 800.248.2878 or visit tandus.com.