Armstrong Recycles 10,000,000th Square Foot of Discarded Ceiling Tiles

Armstrong World Industries announced that it has reclaimed its 10,000,000th square foot of discarded ceiling tiles as part of its Ceiling Recycling Program.

The 10,000,000th square foot was received at the company's Beaver Falls, PA plant as part of a shipment that contained 57,143 square feet of discarded ceiling tiles from an office renovation project at the General Motors Tower in Dearborn, MI.

Based in Lancaster, Pa., Armstrong is the world's largest producer of acoustical ceiling tiles. Its recycling program enables building owners to ship old ceilings from renovation projects to an Armstrong ceiling plant as an alternative to landfill disposal. Under the program, Armstrong even pays freight costs for shipping the old ceilings, which it uses as raw materials in the manufacture of new ceilings.

According to Steven M. Senkowski, president of Armstrong's Building Products Operations, "The Ceiling Recycling Program is designed to help our customers reduce their impact on the environment by redirecting used ceiling tiles from landfills back to Armstrong, thereby creating a closed loop manufacturing process."

The program involves three steps. First, building owners need to verify with Armstrong that their old ceiling tiles can be recycled. The old tiles do not need to be Armstrong products to qualify for the program.

Following verification, owners must stack their old ceiling tiles on pallets and wrap them for pick-up. More detailed information on packaging procedures is available from Armstrong.

Once there is a full trailer load of old ceilings, the owner simply needs to contact Armstrong. The company will then arrange for a truck to pick up the material anywhere in the continental United States and transfer it to its nearest manufacturing facility. Armstrong will pay the freight for shipment to the plant.

The process for recycling old ceilings has proven to be nearly as fast as dumping them, so the program has little, if any, adverse impact on demolition schedules. It can also be less costly than the cost of local handling, transport, dumpster and landfill fees.

All Armstrong ceilings contain recycled materials, and many consist of more than two-thirds recycled content. While a portion of the content is old scrap ceiling material, Armstrong also uses waste products from other industries to manufacture its new ceilings. Most of that waste is in the form of old newspapers and other newsprint, and a by-product of steel production called "mineral wool."