£1m flooring firm on a mission to transform the plastics recycling industry

Nick and Amanda Megson of Abacus Flooring

A £1m turnover flooring manufacturer founded just three years ago has developed a new product which could “turn the plastics recycling industry completely on its head.”

Leicestershire-based Abacus Flooring Solutions has invented a method of incorporating waste plastic that would otherwise go to landfill into industrial resin flooring. The invention, named Abaplas, could also provide an eco-friendly method for replacing harmful bulking materials in other products such as tile adhesives.

It has already attracted the custom of global big hitters such as JCB.

Resin flooring has traditionally been manufactured using silica sand, which is a dangerous and potentially carcinogenic substance when inhaled. Abaplas instead contains non-harmful recycled plastic which is ground down to a white powder.

Nick Megson, managing director of Abacus Flooring, said: “We carried out so many tests that it seemed as if it would never happen. We conducted tests using numerous grades and types of plastic before we finally achieved the fantastic result we have today.

“On our first ever project using this product, the installation guys said it was the best self-smoothing resin system they had used.

“Further research uncovered many other uses for our 100 per cent recycled plastic, in things like our primer coats, scratch coats, self-smoothing screeds, repair compounds – and even things like tile adhesives.

“It could turn the plastics recycling industry completely on its head and really make major strides in helping to save the planet.”

The world’s first resin flooring using 100% recycled plastic was installed by Abacus in the VIP Visitor Centre auditorium at JCB’s global headquarters in Staffordshire. Abaplas flooring has since been installed in warehouses, medical facilities and football stadiums throughout the UK.

Megson, who runs the firm with his wife Amanda, has established a new company, 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.

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