A Leicestershire based flooring specialist has helped Leicestershire County Cricket Club score the eco-deal of the century after boosting its sustainability credentials in a cricketing first.

With the help of innovative resin floor manufacturer Abacus Flooring Solutions, the Cricket Club has turned waste plastics into brand new and stylish resin flooring in three areas of the club at the Uptonsteel County Ground Grace Road.

Abacus Flooring Solutions, which has its head office in Loughborough, Leicestershire, made history by becoming the first company in the world to use waste plastic as a substitute bulking material in its industry-leading resin flooring instead of the traditional silica sand.

It first used its patented invention in JCB’s global headquarters in Staffordshire, and was approached by Sean Jarvis, CEO of the Leicestershire County Cricket Club to create eco-friendly flooring solutions in the Grace Road Community Space Hub, the Friends of Grace Road Cafe and a section of the stadium.

The move means that the cricket club is not only solidly achieving its sustainability goals, but it is also the first cricket venue in the UK to roll out the ground-breaking eco flooring solution, beating neighbouring cricket venue Trent Bridge and UK ‘home of cricket’, Lord’s.

Nick Megson, managing director of Abacus Flooring Solutions, said:

“We are already official partners of the club, so it has been an absolute pleasure to assist them in reaching their sustainability goals.”

Two of the areas of the club benefiting from the make-over are in Friends of Grace Road maintained sections of the ground.

The fund-raising organisation is run by a voluntary team who are passionate about the club. All profits from the cafe, alongside their fundraising efforts, are reinvested into the club and into refurbishments at Uptonsteel County Ground.

Sean Jarvis, CEO of the Leicestershire County Cricket Club, said:

“We are extremely proud to say that we are the first cricket club in the UK to get involved in such a project."

“We are a green club and are constantly embracing ways to push the club forward in an environmentally sound way. Turning old plastics into usable materials is an excellent initiative and offsets our eco efficiency targets in terms of our sustainable waste policy.”

The work, which was carried out during March and April this year in time for the

season, included creating grey flooring in the Abacus Flooring Solutions sponsored section of the stand.

Sean said: “As we continue to develop the club, we will be replacing some of the

seats and if suitable, will be using the plastics from the old seats to create more new flooring within the ground.”

While Abacus Flooring Solutions has already carried out other resin flooring

installations at major football clubs such as Wembley Stadium, Manchester’s Etihad Stadium and King Power Stadium Leicester, this is the first cricket ground that the firm has worked with, ensuring that Leicester has beaten Trent Bridge and even Lord’s to the eco first.

Nick Megson, who set up Abacus Flooring Solutions with his wife Amanda during lockdown four years ago, added: “It is immensely important to us that we tackle plastic waste in a sustainable manner.

“We are so impressed by Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s environmental policy and the work that the club and the volunteers of Friends of Grace Road carry out. It has been a pleasure not only to work with these teams but also to provide the new sustainable surfaces at the ground.”

Nick, who has worked in the resin flooring sector for more than three decades, said that the ground-breaking process involved grinding the waste plastic down to a powder reducing the plastic to a colourless dust, enabling Abacus Flooring Solutions to precisely match the final resin flooring to any colour.

Abacus Flooring Solutions’ multi award-winning advancement not only changes the course of resin flooring production and vastly reduce the volume of plastic ending up in landfill or the world’s oceans, but it also removes silica sand – a dangerous substance when inhaled - from the entire process.

The discovery could also transform many other industrial processes which have

traditionally relied on silica sand as a ballast material.