Circular Flooring – Pioneering Recycling Process for PVC Waste

{title} {profile_1} ,

Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is widely used in the construction industry, for example in flooring applications. However, to date, only a minor share of PVC floor coverings can be recycled after their usage. Thus, valuable resources are lost. How can this be improved? The Circular Flooring partners aim to establish an efficient recycling process for plasticized PVC from post-consumer flooring waste, taking a decisive step towards circular PVC recycling in the European Union.

Circular Flooring video is out!

Watch the video here

First Circular Flooring Expert Days 2021

The first Circular Flooring Expert Days took place from December 6th to 7th 2021 as an online event. Bringing together the partners from our Circular Flooring project and stakeholders from the industry, the Circular Flooring Expert Days focused on the latest developments of the PVC market and our project's recycling processes. In addition, the event focused on providing information on the project scope, technologies and approaches while discussing its results of the first two years with the invited experts. Thematically, the first day of the conference focused mainly on the related policy context of circular economy approaches in different industrial sectors such as building and construction or the European PVC sector. On the second day, the focus was set on the scientific and technical aspects, especially the recycling processes applied within the project. Our project coordinator concluded with a brief summary of the aspects discussed and an outlook on the design of future processes regarding an European circular economy. Read more

Policy recommendations to enhance plastics circularity published

The Horizon Results Booster is a new initiative backed by the European Commission, which aims to maximise the impact of research projects funded by FP7, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Alongside four different EU-funded projects, our Circular Flooring project is part of a Horizon Results Booster working group on eco-innovation, whereby NONTOX, a H2020 action on increasing recycling rate of plastics waste containing hazardous substance from WEEE, ELV and C & DW, takes over the lead. The working group's aspiration is not only to reduce the proportion of non-recyclable plastics in global CO2 emissions, but also to implement a global circular-economy-approach. Read more

Webinar ‘Recycling of plastics – towards a more sustainable plastic treatment in 2030’

Together with our project group of the H2020 Results Booster (NONTOX, CREAToR, PLAST2bCLEANED and REACT), we co-organized the webinar to discuss innovative methods for plastic treatment. The project group works together to identify synergies and work on a joint policy brief. Regarding our project, Thomas Diefenhardt of the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) presented the latest results of Circular Flooring and discussed their relevance and needs for future policy recommendations in the final plenary session. Read more

Construction of the CreaSolv® PVC prototype plant – Update

As part of the Circular Flooring project, a new CreaSolv® Process prototype plant is being built on the premises of the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Freising, Germany. This plant is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, the Fraunhofer IVV and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the Circular Flooring project (Grant-Agreement Number 821366). The process has begun in September 2020 with the construction of the surrounding building. First pilot trials are expected to be performed in summer 2022 in order to prove the recycling capability of post-consumer PVC flooring waste. Read more

Attended Events

In order to keep up to date with recent developments regarding a global circular economy approach and present our project to specific target groups, we attended numerous events, such as the PVC 2021 conference, the world’s leading forum on polyvinyl chloride, which took place online from May 10th to May 12th. Representing our project, colleagues of partner ERFMI spoke about Designing a Circular Economy within the Resilient Flooring Sector, while Akdeniz Chemson covered Solid CaZn and CaOrg Stabilizers in Flooring and the Circular Economy with our project Circular Flooring as a practise example. Another highly interesting event we were able to participate in was the Circular Materials Conferene 2021 organized by the Competence Centre Recycling (CCR) of Chalmers University of Technology, RE:Source and Nordic Publishing where circular economy experts and thought leaders came together to discuss the latest developments in a global circular economy. Furthermore we attended VinylPlus Deutschland e.V. and PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V. PVC and the Environment Workshop which brought together many stakeholders from a wide range of scientific fields to discuss current challenges of a global circular economy. In order to implement gained insights, we participated at Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V.’s Data for a circular economy colloquium speaking about waste management and recycling industry regarding a circular economy as well as at EASME H2020 Projects Workshops identifying specific collaboration opportunities organized by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

Circular Flooring on social media