Hanley Wood Exhibitions has announced the results of its recycling initiative at The International Surface Event (TISE), held January 27-30 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Seventy-five participating exhibitors donated over 100,000 pounds of gently used floorcovering, stone and tile product to charitable partners, coordinated by the Mountain Re-Source Center and its subsidiary Tile Partners for Humanity. In addition, the joint initiative which included support from Freeman Companies, United Services and Mandalay Bay Convention Center was successful in recycling 540,000 pounds of commodity material. Officials from Mandalay Bay Convention Center provided a comprehensive post-show report confirming that as a result of the effort, 80% of the total waste generated from the show was recycled. Recycled materials included cardboard, carpet, carpet pads, concrete, metal, aluminum, paper, plastics, wood crates and pallets.  

“The social responsibility that many of our exhibiting companies and partners are displaying will make a positive impact that is immeasurable.  We feel a responsibility to bring light to the many ways recycling efforts can be implemented in business models year-round.”said Dana Teague, vice president, Hanley Wood Exhibitions. 

TISE featured over 700 exhibitors in five exhibit halls, encompassing a total 350,000 square feet of space. TISE is considered to be a large event by trade show industry standards, based on the number of exhibitors, attendees and total amount of space.  Additional Hanley Wood shows participating in recycling initiatives through a partnership with the Mountain Re-Source Center include DeckExpo, JLC Live NE, JLC Live NW and the Remodeling Show. The TISE initiative is the largest and most comprehensive effort due in part to the significant size of the show. 

Hanley Wood provided a complimentary booth on the show floor to Mountain Re-Source Center to enable representatives to solicit exhibitor donations, answer questions and assist with donor logistics before, during and after the three-day event. The full circle effort involved Hanley Wood’s vendor partners led by Freeman Companies, who provided the necessary equipment and resources to remove donated product from the show floor, as well as the manpower needed to strategically pack and load the trailers. United Services provided material transport and cleaning services and Mandalay Bay Convention Center spearheaded the massive effort to sort and recycle the remaining waste materials left on site.

Product donations filled six 53 feet trailers to capacity and one large flatbed stacked high with rolls of carpet. Donations from the show have more than doubled since the program was launched in 2012. The difficulty of recycling carpet results in large quantities ending up in U.S. landfills each year, making the sizable amount of donated carpet even more impactful.  The gently-used product was delivered to two charitable organizations - Habitat for Humanity (Las Vegas chapter) and River Valley Community Outreach Center (Gridley, Calif.), who plan to utilize the materials to support community improvement efforts currently underway.    

Exhibiting companies of all sizes from the floorcovering, stone and tile industries actively participated in the Hanley Wood recycling initiative. Major contributors included:

• Beaulieu America

• Bedrosians

• Best Buy Flooring Source

• IVC US

• Mannington Mills

• Phenix 

• QuickStep

• Stanton Carpet

• Tarkett

• Urban Floor

• US Floors

In addition to receiving a tax-deductible donation, exhibitors received the benefit of knowing their product would be put to good use after the show.    

"Without the strong partnership we've built with Hanley Wood, Freeman and the ever-growing list of donating exhibitors over the past several years, this initiative wouldn't be possible," said Herb Miller, executive director of mountain Re-Source Center. "The donations collected support our non-profit partners who work in impoverished communities around the country. This massive effort will enable families in need to build better lives."

For more information regarding the Mountain Re-Source Center and Tile Partners for Humanity, visit mountainre-source.org and tpfh.com.