Armstrong World Industries is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of its award-winning*1 ceilings recycling schemes with a series of significant developments that truly place the programme at the forefront in the UK.

Among other initiatives, Armstrong now pledges to recycle non-Armstrong ceiling tiles, enabling contractors to make even more substantial savings on waste disposal costs - some £120 on each skip containing 250m2 of old ceiling tiles.*2

The Armstrong end-of-life scheme now applies to any quantity of all wet felt, stone wool and glass wool ceiling tiles where they are replaced by Armstrong tiles, with full loads of the old tiles transported back free of charge*3 to Armstrong’s factory in Gateshead where they are made into new tiles – a service unique to Armstrong.

Armstrong, whose own ceiling tiles now contain up to 82% recycled content, has developed a “green” branch of its Omega network of approved sub-contractors, specifically for those installers with recycling expertise.

Armstrong’s recycling schemes have recycled 11.5million m2 globally and almost 300 tonnes in the UK in 2012 alone, on projects including the Media Centre, Stratford, East London, Pitney Bowes offices, and the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.

A member of the UK Green Building Council, Armstrong is more recently a partner in the Ceilings Sustainability Partnership, a working party of the AIS (Association of Interior Specialists) technical committee, which delivers on the actions within the Mineral Wool Ceiling Tile Resource Efficiency Action Plan (REAP). The REAP plan is intended to assist the sector in reducing the amount of mineral wool ceiling tiles going to landfill as waste from construction projects and the strip out process.

Most recently, Armstrong has partnered with distributor SIG Interiors to offer its customers reclamation of a minimum of 200m2 of tiles for recycling. Projects already delivered include the headquarters of main contractor Kier Construction and the temporary beach volleyball venue at Horse Guards Parade in London.

Armstrong recycling case studies also feature as WRAP exemplars, including Birmingham University Hospital where almost 43 tonnes of off-cut ceiling tiles were diverted from landfill and an estimated 19.5 tonnes of embodied CO2 were offset.

*1 Awards include Sustain Magazine 2010; Green Apple 2011; AIS (Association of Interior Specialists) Eco Innovation 2011.
*2 Landfill tax is increasing annually at £8 per tonne per year, from £64 per tonne on 31st march 2012 to £80 per tonne by 1st April 2014.
*3 A small processing charge will apply to stone wool and glass fibre tiles.