Mannington Commercial has undertaken an innovative environmental initiative to reclaim and recycle post-consumer vinyl composition tile (VCT).

In the escalating push to divert material from landfills, vinyl flooring manufacturers are collecting installation waste from construction sites and even experimenting with reclaiming old used vinyl flooring.

When a Canadian company stripped the vinyl siding from 275 houses being demolished on a military base, it was able to salvage 100 percent of the siding and then deliver it all to recyclers, saving many thousands of dollars in landfill fees and avoiding the landfill.

The European PVC industry reported that its recycling program "exceeded expectations" in 2006, more than doubling the volume of recycled material for the second year in a row.

To celebrate Earth Day, Peter Schulberg, owner of the Los Angeles Eco-LogicalArt gallery (www.eco-logicalart.org), will host OFF THE WALL 3, a unique, indoor and outdoor, fine art exhibition in which discarded vinyl billboards are transformed into spectacular works of art.

C&A Floorcoverings (C&A), a Tandus company, announced it has recycled more than 100 million pounds of reclaimed vinyl and vinyl-backed carpet, since it introduced the Infinity Initiative 10 years ago.

A key medium in artist Christo's heralded "The Gates, Central Park, New York" was vinyl. The ability to easily extrude vinyl to match the saffron color scheme of the project; its durability; and, most importantly, its ability to be recycled made it the material of choice.

Too often, people look at vinyl recycling with skepticism, and question whether vinyl is really recyclable. The Vinyl Institute has been asked many times to provide concrete examples to prove that vinyl is actually being recycled.