Pilots

MANUFACTURING OF CIRCULAR FLOOR COVERINGS

Production of CISUFLO circular floor coverings (circular laminate flooring, circular vinyl flooring, circular textile flooring) with selection and processing of the materials according to the requirements for their post-use circularization:
• Integration of tags for their identification;
• Design that facilitates maintenance and removal;
• Simulation of product lifetime to ensure high quality.

Goals:
CLaminate: composed of >90% of recycled wood fibres;
CVinyl: composed of >90% of recycled PVC content;
CTextile: mono-material (PA) or easily separable product.

IDENTIFICATION & SORTING OF FLOORING WASTE

Application of Artificial Intelligence techniques to develop an identification & sorting system able to:

• Identify the individual materials fractions of the flooring waste on the conveyor belt;
• Sort the different materials by separating them on different sides of the conveyor belt;
• Perform also at industrial scale.

POLYSEP TECHNOLOGY FOR SEPARATION

This process will allow to easily separate materials’ combinations and remove legacy additives for recycling.

Goals:
• Optimization of process conditions;
• Purity level >90% of polymers such as PA/PVC/PP.

LAMINATE FLOORING RECYCLING

Used laminate floor coverings will be recycled through an innovative defibring technology. The recycled fibres will be used to produce high-density and medium-density fibreboard.

Goals:
• Establishing synergies with the furniture sector;
• Replacing approximately 5% of virgin wood by recycled fibres.

VINYL FLOORING RECYCLING

PVC will be recycled through a mechanical (extrusion) process. Input materials are provided by both vinyl flooring waste and used windows frames. Obtained secondary raw materials will be reintroduced in both sectors.

Goals:
• Establishing an industrial synergy with the construction sector;
• Cushion vinyl flooring contains approx. 5% recycled content;
• Luxury vinyl tiles made with up to 65% recycled content.

TEXTILE FLOORING RECYCLING

Manufacturing of the first fully circular carpet. The recycled polymers are reintroduced in the production step. New installation materials and techniques will be developed to ensure easy removal and post-use circularization.

Goals:
• Pilot 6 should connect and validate: the CFC design, Identification & Sorting technology, eProdis and Polysep Separation.

ePRODIS is an integrated product information system, fundamental to circularity. New Circular Floor Coverings (CFC) prototypes will have an electronic product passport.
Both the first, second and sixth pilot will study the functionality of this system. The ‘use phase’ simulations will help us determine the longevity of the tags. The identification & sorting phase should be simplified and speeded up by the use of tagging technology and the ePRODIS database.