Flora Materials debuts floor tiles made from oyster shell waste
In Colorado, biobased building materials firm Flora Materials has unveiled floor tiles for commercial and residential interiors made from byproduct oyster shell byproducts. Dubbed the Shoreline Flooring Collection, the flooring was developed to be an alternative to traditional products that rely on fossil fuel-based materials, such as luxury vinyl tile.
“Flooring is one of the most widely used materials in the built environment, but for years there’s been a long-held assumption that more sustainable materials come with tradeoffs in durability, performance or design,” said Natalie York, founder and director of research and design at Flora Materials. “We started Flora Materials because we believed bio-based alternatives could eliminate those tradeoffs. The Shoreline Flooring Collection is the result of years of research, testing and collaboration with leading scientists and manufacturers to build a better flooring material that delivers both performance and sustainability.”
The flooring industry represents a major opportunity for material innovation, as traditional vinyl flooring products rely heavily on PVC and other petroleum-derived inputs that contribute an estimated 10 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually.
In addition to debuting the Shoreline Flooring Collection featuring oyster shell byproducts, Flora Materials will shortly preview its patent-pending tulip-based resin technology at NeoCon, developed using a compound found in tulip bulbs.
Category: Chemicals & Materials
