Stewarts Carpets
The Company
From its site in Belfast and with over 30 years in providing quality carpet and flooring, Stewarts Carpets supplies and installs safety floor coverings, sheet vinyl, contract carpet, wooden floors and vinyl tiles.
The Challenge
Stewarts Carpets generate large quantities of carpet trimmings, old carpet and cardboard cores as part of its floor covering installation contracts.
The company sought the help of the Industrial Symbiosis service to find solutions for these wasted resources that would eliminate disposal to landfill and the associated costs.
The Solution
An Industrial Symbiosis practitioner visited the company and was able to provide advice. Cardboard cores and carpet off-cuts were identified as materials that could be reused in a different industry environment rather than being disposed of as waste. The practitioner introduced Stewarts Carpets to the Play Resource Centre who could provide an alternative outlet for the carpet offcuts and avoid landfill. The carpet offcuts are now collected by Play Resource Centre and placed in the Scrap Store. From this store, schools and community groups are able to collect these materials for use as craft materials.
The Benefits
The synergy illustrates that the Industrial Symbiosis service can find solutions for small quantities of wasted resources that are costly and difficult to dispose of.
Both organisations have benefited through this synergy. Stewarts Carpets not only improved its environmental credentials by diverting materials from skip disposal but also found a sustainable solution for a reusable resource. By eliminating the need for two skips, the company have ultimately achieved £400 in cost savings.
Play Resource Centre now provides a regular outlet for these and other wasted resources from Stewarts Carpets and in turn provides free craft materials for youth groups, schools, and communities.
“Working with the Industrial Symbiosis Service has shown us that it is possible to find solutions, even for small quantities of difficult and often mixed waste”.
Stewarts Carpets
The Industrial Symbiosis Service is funded by Invest Northern Ireland and delivered by International Synergies NI Ltd
