Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CISUFLO (CIrcular SUstainable FLOor coverings)
Période du rapport: 2024-06-01 au 2025-06-30
The CISUFLO project, Circular Sustainable Floorings, aimed 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 focussed on the implementation of six pilots focusing on manufacturing, sorting, separation and recycling of floor coverings and on the scaling up of novel technologies. The pilots covered three different value chains and sectors, namely carpets, resilient flooring products and wood laminates.
CISUFLO established new synergies with other linked sectors and provided policymakers with useful inputs for standardization and legislation.
CISUFLO’s overall goal was to minimize the environmental impact of the EU flooring sector, by setting up a systemic framework for circular and sustainable floor coverings taking into account both technical feasibility and socio-economic factors.
More specifically, within CISUFLO, following objectives were envisaged:
*Developing concepts, guidelines and prototypes for circular floor coverings, focussing on carpet, wood laminate and resilient flooring
*Developing a product information system (so-called ePRODIS), making it available to all stakeholders
*Value chain assessment and raw material streams analysis
*Implementation and evaluation of the six pilots
*Sustainability assessment of the new technologies, materials and products
*Development of circular business models and a transformation plan to circularity
*Cross-sectorial cooperation from the flooring sector with other related sectors and projects
*Raising awareness of CISUFLO results within the flooring sector and beyond
CISUFLO established new synergies with other linked sectors and provided policymakers with useful inputs for standardization and legislation.
CISUFLO’s overall goal was to minimize the environmental impact of the EU flooring sector, by setting up a systemic framework for circular and sustainable floor coverings taking into account both technical feasibility and socio-economic factors.
More specifically, within CISUFLO, following objectives were envisaged:
*Developing concepts, guidelines and prototypes for circular floor coverings, focussing on carpet, wood laminate and resilient flooring
*Developing a product information system (so-called ePRODIS), making it available to all stakeholders
*Value chain assessment and raw material streams analysis
*Implementation and evaluation of the six pilots
*Sustainability assessment of the new technologies, materials and products
*Development of circular business models and a transformation plan to circularity
*Cross-sectorial cooperation from the flooring sector with other related sectors and projects
*Raising awareness of CISUFLO results within the flooring sector and beyond
Within CSIFULO following items were in focus:
* Different design guidelines for circularity-concepts have been drafted for circular textiles, vinyl flooring, laminate and bioflooring. Material and manufacturing aspects have been investigated, as well as tagging and installation methods.
* An overview of current and future input waste streams and existing recycling technologies has been made.
* ePRODIS, a modular web-based tool for offering product info to all stakeholders (e.g. manufacturers, installers, recyclers, consumers) has been developed. The platform is available at www.ePRODIS.eu. The ePRODIS platform will be managed by EUFCA, it will be modified in 2026 once the mandatory data content is available from CEN/TC 143.
* From the side of the wider socio-economic context, operational environment and material flows were mapped, resulting in a roadmap. This roadmap served as input to start the development of the circular business models.
Waste volumes, collection, logistics, options for recycling, standardisation and certification activities were also investigated. Customer engagement is also mapped.
* Six pilots were conducted:
- pilot 1: cLaminate: use of 100% recycled wood fibres in HDF could be shown. cTextile: fusionbonding of piles combined with powder scattering proved to be a viable way to produce 'monomaterial' PA6 carpets (85% PA6 content). cVinyl: In cushion vinyl, using the plastisol technology, only 10 wt% rPVC can be used without impairing the technical
performance. In LVT (produced via extrusion), 100% of virgin PVC can be replaced by rRPV. Bioflooring: the use of different waste streams was assessed, showing potential to use
- pilot 2: An identification and sorting line was built, allowing identification of flooring waste via NIR spectroscopy, RFID and QR code reading. By means of vacuum grippers the different flooring waste streams could be sorted out. The pilot line could demonstrate the feasibility of these technologies.
- pilot 3: The PolySep technology (solvent based delamination of multilayered materials) was in its current design not suited to separate the constituents of carpets or vinyl flooring. The fluffy nature of shredded carpet blocked the line, and the different constituents of PVC/PET vinyl flooring could not be completely separated.
- pilot 4: This pilot line, based on steam explosion, has shown it capability to convert EoL laminate into regained wood fibres. Efficiencies over 90% were obtained, and an output of more than 1 ton/hour was achieved. The laminate recycling line is currently being upscaled by Unilin (referred to as Osiris technology) to industrial scale
(10 ton/hour).
- pilot 5: Both LVT and cushion vinyl can be mechanically recycled. After micronisation, the recycled PVC (rPVC) can be reintroduced into flooring. Cushion vinyl including 5 wt% rPVC and LVT including 100% rPVC could be made on industrial scale. rPVC stemming from window profiles can also be introduced in LVT. Opposite, 5 wt% to 10 wt% rPVC
from LVT can be introduced in the window profiles or thermal reinforcement of window profiles.
- pilot 6: The circularity of a 'monomaterial' carpet could be demonstrated. A broadloom (85% PA6) was produced using recycled PA6 (Econyl). Next, small scale installation trials were performed, showing that a tackifier can be used for clean uplifting. The use phase was demonstrated. After use, the carpet was chemically recycled and
reconverted to new Econyl. The separation layer concept based on a PO hotmelt (triggered by heating) was proven for a broadloom carpet and a carpet tile. A separation layer which can be triggered via solvents was also demonstrated for carpet tiles.
* A Transition Support tool, guiding people to implementation of a circular economy approach, was developed and is available on the CISUFLO website.
* Finally, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Techno-economic assessments (TEA), social Life Cycle Analysis (s-LCA), scenario analyses and circularity assessments have been performed for the different flooring types, showing the benefit to recycle flooring.
* Different design guidelines for circularity-concepts have been drafted for circular textiles, vinyl flooring, laminate and bioflooring. Material and manufacturing aspects have been investigated, as well as tagging and installation methods.
* An overview of current and future input waste streams and existing recycling technologies has been made.
* ePRODIS, a modular web-based tool for offering product info to all stakeholders (e.g. manufacturers, installers, recyclers, consumers) has been developed. The platform is available at www.ePRODIS.eu. The ePRODIS platform will be managed by EUFCA, it will be modified in 2026 once the mandatory data content is available from CEN/TC 143.
* From the side of the wider socio-economic context, operational environment and material flows were mapped, resulting in a roadmap. This roadmap served as input to start the development of the circular business models.
Waste volumes, collection, logistics, options for recycling, standardisation and certification activities were also investigated. Customer engagement is also mapped.
* Six pilots were conducted:
- pilot 1: cLaminate: use of 100% recycled wood fibres in HDF could be shown. cTextile: fusionbonding of piles combined with powder scattering proved to be a viable way to produce 'monomaterial' PA6 carpets (85% PA6 content). cVinyl: In cushion vinyl, using the plastisol technology, only 10 wt% rPVC can be used without impairing the technical
performance. In LVT (produced via extrusion), 100% of virgin PVC can be replaced by rRPV. Bioflooring: the use of different waste streams was assessed, showing potential to use
- pilot 2: An identification and sorting line was built, allowing identification of flooring waste via NIR spectroscopy, RFID and QR code reading. By means of vacuum grippers the different flooring waste streams could be sorted out. The pilot line could demonstrate the feasibility of these technologies.
- pilot 3: The PolySep technology (solvent based delamination of multilayered materials) was in its current design not suited to separate the constituents of carpets or vinyl flooring. The fluffy nature of shredded carpet blocked the line, and the different constituents of PVC/PET vinyl flooring could not be completely separated.
- pilot 4: This pilot line, based on steam explosion, has shown it capability to convert EoL laminate into regained wood fibres. Efficiencies over 90% were obtained, and an output of more than 1 ton/hour was achieved. The laminate recycling line is currently being upscaled by Unilin (referred to as Osiris technology) to industrial scale
(10 ton/hour).
- pilot 5: Both LVT and cushion vinyl can be mechanically recycled. After micronisation, the recycled PVC (rPVC) can be reintroduced into flooring. Cushion vinyl including 5 wt% rPVC and LVT including 100% rPVC could be made on industrial scale. rPVC stemming from window profiles can also be introduced in LVT. Opposite, 5 wt% to 10 wt% rPVC
from LVT can be introduced in the window profiles or thermal reinforcement of window profiles.
- pilot 6: The circularity of a 'monomaterial' carpet could be demonstrated. A broadloom (85% PA6) was produced using recycled PA6 (Econyl). Next, small scale installation trials were performed, showing that a tackifier can be used for clean uplifting. The use phase was demonstrated. After use, the carpet was chemically recycled and
reconverted to new Econyl. The separation layer concept based on a PO hotmelt (triggered by heating) was proven for a broadloom carpet and a carpet tile. A separation layer which can be triggered via solvents was also demonstrated for carpet tiles.
* A Transition Support tool, guiding people to implementation of a circular economy approach, was developed and is available on the CISUFLO website.
* Finally, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Techno-economic assessments (TEA), social Life Cycle Analysis (s-LCA), scenario analyses and circularity assessments have been performed for the different flooring types, showing the benefit to recycle flooring.
CISUFLO provided systemic innovations at the technical, information and socio-economic level and performed 6 pilots to demonstrate their feasibility.
Progress beyond state of the art:
* ePRODIS: the existing PRODIS system for carpets has been extended to other flooring types and includes more data than the current PRODIS system e.g. data on recycled content, maintenance information etc. By linking the platform with a tag to the flooring sorting can be facilitated. The platform can be used to comply with the upcoming digital product passport.
* Laminate: HDF including recycled wood fibres are now on the market, and the included recycled content will increase from 3 wt% to 30 wt% after finalisation of the industrial laminate recycling line. The line also allows to recycle HDF and MDF coming from other sectors, which is currently being incinerated.
* Carpet: a monomaterial carpet (85% PA6), which can be introduced without prior treatments to the recycling process, was designed and the circularity was demonstrated.
* Vinyl flooring: LVT: 100% virgin PVC can be substituted by recycled PVC. Synergies could be established with the construction sector by incorporating rPVC stemming from window profiles. Cushion vinyl: up to 5 wt% rPVC can be used, so far no recycled content is used during the production of cushion vinyl.
* Social LCA and circularity assessment has not been performed in the flooring sector. ‘Environmental learning curve’ to predict the environmental LCA performance of industrial scale take up have been established.
* a Transition Support tool has been developed which can guide e.g. flooring product developers how to create more sustainable flooring.
Progress beyond state of the art:
* ePRODIS: the existing PRODIS system for carpets has been extended to other flooring types and includes more data than the current PRODIS system e.g. data on recycled content, maintenance information etc. By linking the platform with a tag to the flooring sorting can be facilitated. The platform can be used to comply with the upcoming digital product passport.
* Laminate: HDF including recycled wood fibres are now on the market, and the included recycled content will increase from 3 wt% to 30 wt% after finalisation of the industrial laminate recycling line. The line also allows to recycle HDF and MDF coming from other sectors, which is currently being incinerated.
* Carpet: a monomaterial carpet (85% PA6), which can be introduced without prior treatments to the recycling process, was designed and the circularity was demonstrated.
* Vinyl flooring: LVT: 100% virgin PVC can be substituted by recycled PVC. Synergies could be established with the construction sector by incorporating rPVC stemming from window profiles. Cushion vinyl: up to 5 wt% rPVC can be used, so far no recycled content is used during the production of cushion vinyl.
* Social LCA and circularity assessment has not been performed in the flooring sector. ‘Environmental learning curve’ to predict the environmental LCA performance of industrial scale take up have been established.
* a Transition Support tool has been developed which can guide e.g. flooring product developers how to create more sustainable flooring.