Words: Darren Taylor

Back in 2022, I wrote an opinion piece for this magazine requesting an amnesty for worktop samples.

In it, I explained the various ways that I had tried to personally dispose of the hundreds of de-listed granite, porcelain and quartz tiles that had built up over the year in the cold, and not very pretty, basement storage room in my showroom that we lovingly call the ‘Gimp Room.’ I had even tried to re-purpose them in my home, using them as coasters and making crazy paving, but had ended up taking them to be recycled, as I do every year.

I have never understood why the onus is on us retailers to try to organise the removal and disposal of these many samples when it could, and should, be organised at source. I am aware that most tile samples can be recycled or reused and, unlike the many paper brochures I receive, I cannot just put old tile samples in the commercial recycling bags that we pay the council to take away. They don’t comply with the council’s regulations, and I could be subject to a fine.

Following publication of my article, I expected one or two worktop manufacturers to, excuse the pun, ‘surface’ and get in touch. I was at least expecting a DM on LinkedIn to say that they had read my article and had realised that it is, not only their responsibility to bring samples to retailers, like me, but to also take them back to be recycled or re-purposed in some way when they become discontinued.

Again, excuse the pun, but the silence was ‘stony.’

As it stands, surface manufacturer sales representatives are keen to call me to arrange an appointment wanting to drop off the very latest veiny samples to add to my many very similar existing samples. However, when I call to ask them to take the discontinued ones back, they just advise me to ‘throw them out.’ I even had one turn up the other day, they pulled 20 samples I had on display and told me to no longer sell them. Then they left with a smile, leaving me with a pile of tiles.

Earlier this year, I had another huge clear-out and, as mild-mannered as I usually am, I was angry. Why was I, yet again, going to make a trip to an out-of-town waste management centre to get rid of this perfectly reusable commercial waste, now classed as rubble, for which I have to pay a fee? What a waste of my time and my money! I decided that enough was enough.

As a porcelain, stone or quartz brand, your manufacturing processes can have all the best environmental credentials in the world, and you can even be a B-Corp business. But, if you cannot follow them through to the retailer, then your eco-friendly initiatives only skim the surface. As a professional sector, we all want to be more sustainable, so this is where a manufacturer can really shine and make a difference.

Start a take-back and recycle scheme for your old samples. It might be a rocky road to start with, but I am sure that at least one manufacturer can take the lead and make this scheme possible as there are lots of benefits in doing so.

Think of the goodwill, and the positive PR this will generate, when you inform the entire KBB sector that you have started a take-back and recycling scheme for retailers, further enhancing your sustainability message.

Think of the meeting opportunities – your representative calls the retailer to organise a pick-up date for old samples (hooray!). Can they have a meeting and drop off some new ones at the same time? Yes please, that would be marble-ous!  We will be welcoming you with open arms, instead of stone faces.

Think of the potential sales opportunities. Why? Because worktops tend to represent a large amount of a kitchen’s budget and end-user clients increasingly want to know which brand has the best sustainability story. This will be a great one for retailers to tell when they are recommending your Calacatta Viola over any other brand’s…

If you really are enterprising, you will take back and recycle other manufacturers’ samples too, making mine and lots of other retailers’ lives much better. That is until you all get together as an industry to do this as a matter of course.

The Gimp Room is filling up already, so I look forward to your call…