CISUFLO, new routes for floor coverings on the horizon.
Carpets, vinyls and wood laminates are long and they are ubiquitous in our interiors. However, at the end of their useful life, there are currently only limited recycling options available. The CISUFLO project, Circular Sustainable Floorings, aims to develop innovative circular products for the flooring industry, prompting, in the long run, the adoption of a circular economy model throughout the entire value chain and beyond.
The work-plan foresees the implementation of six pilots focusing on manufacturing, sorting, separation and recycling of floor coverings and scaling up of novel technologies. The pilots cover three different value chains and sectors, namely carpets, vinyls and wood laminates. CISUFLO will establish new synergies with other linked sectors and providing policymakers with useful inputs for standardization and legislation.
Officially started on June 1st 2021, CISUFLO has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Grant Agreement No 101003893, in response to the call H2020-SC5-2020-2. For its deployment it has been allocated €7,69 million by the Horizon2020 funding program to be distributed over a 48 months period.
CISUFLO will have a positive impact on the whole sector and its other challenging interconnections: complex value chain, varying from country to country; link to other sectors (construction & building, plastics, textiles & wood, interior design); product types covering various raw materials, with wood and polymers (PA, PP, PVC) as main raw materials, as well as numerous additives; product lifetimes range from over 10 years for residential floorings to 3-4 days for event carpets.
CISUFLO will boost the environmental performance of the sector, contributing to the achievement of SDG12 ‘responsible consumption and production’, SDG11 ‘Sustainable cities & communities’ by minimising the per capita environmental impact of cities for flooring waste, to SDG9 ‘Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’ and finally, SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’.
This Innovation Action gathers 19 partners from seven different countries, led by the Belgian collective center Centexbel, and 32 voluntary supporting parties that will contribute with feedback and results exploitation. Most of the partners are experienced in circularization and/or in participating in European research consortia. The kick-off meeting, held online on the 16th and 17th of June 2021, gave official start to the CISUFLO project. During the meeting, after having discussed administrative and financial topics, the partners polished the first period’s implementation plan. With the project’s official launch, the CISUFLO partners are now ready to carry out their assigned tasks and work together towards the realization of the expected outcomes.
For more information, please contact Guy Buyle, CISUFLO project coordinator and Manager EU Research at Centexbel, at gbu@centexbel.be.
