The giant visitor auditorium at JCB's global HQ became the first installation site in the world for Abacus's 100% recycled waste plastic flooring system.
FLOORING
SUSTAINABLE FLOORING COUNTS
Nick Megson, MD of Abacus Flooring Solutions, reveals how his ground-breaking resin flooring system will help save the planet.
Leicestershire-based Abacus Flooring Solutions is on a mission to transform the global industrial resin flooring sector.
Following a painstaking research and development process, the company has devised a sustainable and scalable flooring system that will force environmentally conscious FMs to sit up and take notice.
The now-patented innovation, a world first called Abaplas, involves the replacement of harmful silica sand as a bulking material with 100% recycled waste plastic.
Not only does the development of Abaplas reduce the volume of waste plastic that is dumped in landfill and the world’s oceans, it removes the carbon-heavy silica mining and transportation process from the equation entirely. So, as FMs enter a new era of Government-led sustainability targets, Scope 3 emissions and the eventual achievement of net zero, Abaplas provides a flooring solution that cannot be ignored.
Abacus Flooring Solutions has already proven that its ground-breaking system works, having completed numerous prestigious contracts using Abaplas over the past couple of years.
The very first project involved the installation of a new resin flooring in JCB’s enormous VIP Visitor Centre auditorium at its global headquarters in Staffordshire. Last year, Abacus also installed an Abaplas resin floor in the Royal Box at Wembley Stadium. We even came up with the idea of using the national stadium’s old plastic seating within the flooring – seating that would otherwise have ended up in landfill.
With many other successful projects completed at healthcare sites, football clubs, logistics and manufacturing plants, the feedback from clients and contractors alike is that the Abaplas flooring system performs even better than traditional resin flooring.
An estimated three-quarters of the world’s waste plastic re-enters our environment. Some is sent to landfill while the majority ends up in the ocean. This global pollution problem is widely recognised as being a danger to
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marine animals, human health and our entire ecosystem, adversely altering habitats and natural lifecycles and reducing the planet’s ability to adapt to climate change.
The harmful chemicals that some waste plastics release can seep into surrounding soil and groundwater from landfills. So, by discovering, testing and patenting a recycling solution for reducing the vast amount of waste plastic that is otherwise disposed of, Abacus has potentially created a process that could have a hugely positive environmental impact – not just in the flooring sector but in countless industries and products across the world.
The traditional alternative, silica sand, is used in many products, including mortars, cements, roofing shingles, asphalt and adhesives. By adapting Abacus’s new Abaplas process, there is no reason why this pioneering invention cannot entirely replace silica on a mass, global scale.
Abaplas contains non-harmful recycled waste plastic which is ground down to a colourless powder. The installed flooring can then be matched to any required colour and can include bespoke designs, markings, logos and non-slip surfaces.
To support this innovation, we have established a sister firm, Abaplas Recycling Limited, to handle all the plastic recycling for Abacus as well as beginning the sales of treated plastic for use by other product manufacturers. It is expected that this recycling business will grow exponentially over the next few years as more clients specify Abacus’s 100% recycled waste plastic flooring.
Abaplas has already led to Abacus winning numerous innovation and sustainability awards, including a Green World Award – a global environmental campaign that rewards the world’s greenest countries, communities and companies.
While rapidly gaining more and more global attention, it is impossible to put a value on the positive environmental impact of the Abaplas development.
www.abacusflooringsolutions.co.uk twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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