Since 1994, the Lancaster Ice Rink has been a cornerstone of Central Pennsylvania’s skating community. Built through the Lancaster County Youth Amateur Hockey League’s fundraising and volunteer efforts, it now welcomes more than 250,000 skaters and spectators each year for hockey, figure skating, public sessions, camps and clinics and serves as home ice for the Lancaster Firebirds and local scholastic teams including Millersville University.
As the facility prepared for the 2025-2026 season, it faced a pressing need. The flooring originally installed nearly a decade ago was reaching the end of its lifecycle, but rather than simply replacing it, the rink saw an opportunity to refresh its spaces while reinforcing its role as a responsible community leader.
That moment came through a partnership with Ecore International, a Lancaster-based company, and its innovative TRUcircularity takeback program.
Ecore’s TRUcircularity program is built on a simple but powerful concept: recover, recycle and reuse. Old flooring is collected at the end of its life and returned to Ecore, where it is broken down and reprocessed into new, high-performance surfaces.
For Lancaster Ice Rink, this meant the original Ecore Basic Fit 8mm flooring installed in 2015-2016 – long before Ecore’s skate-specific Blade surface was available – was not destined for landfill. Instead, the recycled rubber was reclaimed through TRUcircularity and given a new life. In July 2025 alone, the rink contributed 12,560 pounds of rubber back into the circular economy, avoiding more than 30.5 tons of CO2 emissions compared to producing virgin rubber.
“By participating in TRUcircularity, Lancaster Ice Rink not only refreshed its facility but also advanced a more sustainable future,” says Shweta Srikanth, chief circularity officer at Ecore. “We reclaimed thousands of pounds of material, prevented significant carbon emissions, and delivered a surface built for the ice sports community – a strong example of how local facilities can upgrade performance while reducing impact.”
With the old flooring removed and recycled, Ecore’s sales team recommended Blade, a surface engineered specifically for ice and skating environments. Approximately 5,000 square feet of Blade was installed throughout the rink, covering locker rooms, restrooms, walkways, the snack bar and a custom-logo entryway that greets every skater and spectator.
Ecore’s Blade flooring is a dense, nine-millimeter vulcanized composition rubber surface engineered for ice-skating traffic. Blade offers superior slip resistance in both wet and dry conditions, outstanding blade resistance and high energy restitution (74.9 percent) with a force reduction of 8.2 percent – making it ideal for locker rooms, walkways and rink perimeters. It’s also made with reclaimed materials and fully recyclable at end of life.
“Blade was designed specifically for ice and skate applications,” says Rich Willett, president of flooring & industrial for Ecore. “For Lancaster Ice Rink, that meant delivering a surface built for durability, safety and comfort, while showcasing Ecore’s ability to support community facilities and the athletes and families who rely on them.
The installation was managed by Wall-to-Wall Floor Covering, a Lancaster County-based company specializing in residential and commercial flooring since 1999. Its local expertise reinforced the project’s community-first ethos. The job spanned several months of planning and required just seven business days on-site to complete.
While the 2025-2026 season is only now getting underway, the transformation is already visible. The new Blade surfaces have elevated the appearance of the rink, offering a brighter, more modern look to some of its most heavily trafficked spaces.
“The flooring makes a big difference,” said Larry Courville, General Manager at Lancaster Ice Rink. “Our locker rooms and walkways look completely refreshed, and families notice it as soon as they walk in. Just as important, we now have a surface designed specifically for skating that we can count on for durability, performance and safety. It’s a huge win for our players, coaches and the community.”
The Lancaster Ice Rink project goes beyond aesthetics, creating a cleaner, safer space while uniting performance, sustainability and community pride. As the 2025 season begins, skaters will take the ice on a surface built for them and a more sustainable future.
