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Project Technical THE FIFTHWALL RECYCLING MINERAL WOOL CEILING TILES The Amron Architectural at Product Madness, London Joe Cilia, FIS Technical Director, reminds members that recycling mineral wool ceiling tiles is easier than you may think. I N the past, ceilings would not have necessarily been considered within the design aesthetics of a commercial space. E ACH year, about 20million ft² of ceilings are installed in the UK. More than 70% of those are mineral wool ceiling tiles, So, what happens to them at end of life and what can be done with all those off-cuts generated during the installation phase? Like steel, gypsum, aluminium and timber used in ceilings, ‘mineral wool’ can be recycled back into mineral The Amron Architectural at Product Madness, London 10 www.thefis.org ceiling tiles, and as more refurbishment and new build projects record what happens to waste, the recycling of mineral wool ceiling tiles has come to the forefront, helping to meet these targets. Waste is generated as old ceilings are stripped out as part of a refurbishment and as off-cuts during installation as the perimeter tiles are cut to balance the ceiling and fit the building’s shape and deviations, it’s at both these stages that, with planning, the waste can palletised, collected and recycled into new tiles. Send it back In the case of a refurbishment, once the original manufacturer and date of manufacture is established by looking at the back of the tiles and the m² established, the manufacturer should be contacted; most have ‘recycle@manufacturer.XX ’ as an email address or searching their website will take you to the specialist managing the process. For new installations you should talk to suppliers at an early stage to establish what process they have in place to take back clean, bagged offcuts (crucially, without other site waste and coke cans). REPORT 014 MINERAL WOOL CEILING TILES: A Resource Efficiency Action Plan June 2012 Preparedby theAssociationof Interior Specialists A contribution to delivering the targets in the joint government and industry Strategy for SustainableConstruction FIND OUTMORE More information about the Resource Efficiency Action Plan for Ceilings produced by the Ceiling Sustainability Partnership is at www.thefis.org/wp- content/uploads/2015/10/Report_14_ Ceiling_Action_Plan_for_print_-_FINAL.pdf i that the ceiling is now being considered as the fifth wall. Product Madness When designing modern spaces, it is almost unanimously agreed that sustainability is key. With the use of recycled and ethically sourced products, we are seeing that ceilings are now being designed to relate to this approach. Amron Architectural worked closely with the designers at Oktra to choose the most suitable creative mesh solution when asked to redesign and fit-out the new office space at Product Madness – an award-winning developer of social and mobile games situated in London. Amron Architectural’s Zircon expanded mesh ceiling rafts were specified in bespoke sizes and finishes to match the corporate colours. Each raft was designed to have a simple and fast installation method, utilising the existing unistrut on site. www.amronarchitectural.co.uk The need for a ceiling is vital, but the look and style may have often been overlooked. So, it is becoming increasingly apparent