Nature does its daily dealings in cycles. Water, soil, nutrients – they all go around. Then they come back around again.

These tidy wasteless processes offer the Kermit in me great comfort and satisfaction, like how I feel after harvesting my compost bin, or line drying my linens in July. Show me a product that cycles waste materials into something useful and I’m over the moon.

Did you know that you can recycle leather? While my inner vegetarian crosses her arms with reservation, a wave of gentle curiosity takes over. Toronto-based flooring company Torly’s is currently promoting their line of recycled leather flooring. And, based on what I’ve seen so far, the product seems quite promising.

Create an earth-friendly room (News Canada)

Recycled Leather Flooring
Available in both tiles and planks, Torly’s leather floors are made from a 2.7mm layer of post-industrial recycled leather backed by recycled cork.  Literally on the flip-side, the backing is made from “recycled winestoppers and shoe soles”. (Couto)

‘Post-industrial recycled’ stands for waste material from industrial processes that is diverted  from the waste stream, rather than materials that you and I toss into our curbside recycle bins. So, in this sense ‘recycled’ doesn’t mean remanufactured – but it does mean than useable leather trimmings are reclaimed and not landfilled.

Sandwiched between the leather and cork is a slice of HDF softwood core. That’s good news for forest and plantation regrowth since softwood tends to be faster growing than hardwood. With this composition, Torly’s vouches for the durability of its leather flooring by offering customers a 25 year residential wear warranty, which applies even when the floor is reused up to three times.

Style and Comfort
Both the long planks and oversized tiles were designed to achieve an expansive open feel in the living room, den, office, and bedroom. It’s hard to imagine that walking across a leather floor is any less comfortable than a pair of worn padded slippers.

The cork backing creates a cushioned surface for tired soles while textures and colours from tan to black enrich your room of choice. An all-sides micro-bevel edge brings a high-quality finished look to your space. And, if you have a penchant for patterns, different colour and texture combinations can add distinction to your leather floor design.

Installation, Maintenance and Repair
Thanks to the glueless Uniclic® joint system, Torly’s leather floors are simple to install, snapping into place with only a few simple tools. In the event of a damaged section, a single tile or plank can be removed and replaced. It seems the pioneered logic of Interface and Flor modular carpeting tiles has caught on. Torly’s leather floors also do not require any underlay, saving additional materials.

With simple installation and removal that is free of adhesive and nails or staples, reuse and salvage becomes so much easier. Torly’s recommends ‘recycling’ this product by donating it to the various Habitat for Humanity Restores across the country. Although this is a worthwhile strategy for keeping your used building materials  out of the landfill, Restores will only accept donations in reasonable condition. So if your floor is not fit for reuse, there is currently no way to recycle it.

In the meantime, you can keep your leather floors in good shape by vacuuming, sweeping, and cleaning with Torly’s cleaning kit. While we don’t know much about what’s in the ‘natural glow’ cleaners, the company assures us that their leather floors are a healthy choice, “as they contain no harmful VOC emissions, no added formaldehyde and exceed California Indoor Air Quality standards, among the most stringent in the world.” (Torly’s)

What’s the Eco Verdict?
All in all, Torly’s recycled leather flooring scores pretty high. Where it loses points is in its location of manufacture and the lack of green disposal options. Made in Germany and Belgium, it is far from a local product.

Even used up Flor carpet tiles can be re-recycled into guess what? -More carpet tiles. Still, Torly’s deserves some credit. A durable, recycled, no-VOC and easy to reuse product is on the right track. Torly’s recycled leather plank and tile flooring retails for approximately $10.99 per square foot.

Resources

Torly’s

Ecodomo