I hope you; your families, friends and work colleagues are all safe and well. What a strange time we are all going through right now, totally unpredictable and one we have never seen before.
It is pleasing to see and hear from our network of members again and I would like to thank you all for getting back in touch and involving us again and helping the sector get over the last few months.
Our network of members consists of 103 members from across the supply chain, broken down as follows:
With such a diverse membership group, our members have the benefit from working alongside a cross section of the carpet and waste industry.
With a common goal of reducing the overall environmental impact on the sector, we encourage all our members to share knowledge and best practice and network with each other to find the most sustainable practices.
Lockdown
As with most of you on the 16th March 2020 when it was announced that all unnecessary social contact should cease, I was not expecting my world to stop. On 23rd March we were then ordered that we ‘must’ stay at home and unessential shops, businesses and schools had to close. The government then introduced the Furlough scheme and suddenly everyone stayed at home and only those who could work from home continued. This lasted around 3 to 4 months, in some cases is still ongoing.
As most of our members were no longer ‘open for business’ CRUK also took the difficult decision and cut back drastically on staff and office expenses. During the initial period we contacted all our members to find out what their positions were and provide any necessary support. With most of the manufacturing, distribution, flooring contractors and retailers closed (apart from those working on government / NHS contracts), some processing and recycling companies continued, albeit, in very limited capacities. Another challenge according to our members was the supply of materials for contracts and we heard that several of them who had stock were able to supply short term contracts but were not certain they would not run out. During this period we started to notice an increase in members and non-members enquiring about all types of carpet and textile flooring waste, all of a sudden companies were willing to pay more than usual prices and take in as much tonnage as we could find.
The difficulty was that everything had stopped, doors were closed, and you could not get hold of the right people, so sourcing carpet waste was difficult. CRUK are not waste brokers, but we took it upon ourselves to help our members and actively source material from wherever possible. We contacted a whole range of companies and people within the industry to see what they are currently doing with their waste and if we could provide a better alternative. By doing so we managed to help and find specific material streams to satisfying some of our members. However, what this did teach me was that there are still a lot of companies who do not really know what happens with their waste, it “just gets collected and taken away”. The strength of CRUK is that it can find through its network more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives. Just some of the key areas we are helping our members and the sector on are:
- Production waste to include removal of yarn from cones
- Sorted clean and baled pp tufted and sorted wool offcuts from installation
- Sample books
- Reuse of broadloom old and end rolls
- Donations of carpet e.g. From an event in London where the carpet was fitted but not even walked on
- Carpet tiles from commercial renovation projects
Although most of us are now out of lockdown and back to work, we are still witnessing a demand for carpet and other textile flooring waste, so please do contact us and ask how we can help audit your existing waste streams to ensure you have the best possible solutions in place.
Bounce Back
According to the Bank of England, we are ‘enjoying a V-shaped economic recovery’. Although I cannot speak for the whole economy, what we are witnessing in the carpet and textile flooring sector is certainly a huge increase in production, demand, and sales.