PVC flooring accounts for a significant share of PVC use in the construction sector and has great potential for recycling. Nevertheless, the actual recycling rate of PVC flooring spillage in 2018 was less than 20%, according to the national system for the separate collection and recycling of material residues from the installation of PVC floorings, developed by flooring manufacturer Tarkett AB and now used by all manufacturers in the flooring industry. To improve the sorting and recycling process of old PVC flooring it is necessary to identify where the material is located and evaluate its recycling potential. Such information is crucial for demolition waste recycling companies and flooring manufacturers to improve recycling practices for PVC flooring and then use the recycled PVC materials in the new flooring production. The challenge is to find out in which buildings there is PVC flooring and when it was installed which will indicate when it is planned to be dismantled and replaced. Since the PVC flooring manufactures do not keep track on where their products are laid such information is lacking. The best source of information that was made available for the researchers appeared to be the public building owners´ maintenance plans. Therefore, it was decided to focus on the presence of PVC flooring in public preschools as an example. By combining data from maintenance plans with national building registers, the PVC flooring in the Swedish preschools have been forecasted. The project results show an example how limited data sources can be used to predict presence of materials in larger stocks and is therefore expected to contribute to a climate-neutral supply chain with recycled PVC flooring. Based on the results of this study, dialogue, recommendations and guidelines can be developed for the flooring industry, the waste and recycling industry and the Swedish real estate and construction sector.
The project has been financed with support from Vinnova, the Swedish Innovation Agency.