News

Originally, it was planned to meet in person for the biannual General Assembly at the premises of our partner Sphera Solutions GmbH in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. That was before lockdown and travel restrictions occurred. Who would have thought that a virus forces us to meet virtually?

Every Work Package Leader presented the work that has been carried out within the last six months and if any difficulties or risks for the project arose. Of course, every partner has been affected to a lesser or greater extend with the consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown, either with closed labs, adjusting business strategies or moving to home-office. Many events have been postponed, but we are positive that they will all take place in a virtual format or when the circumstances allow it in person so that Circular Flooring can be presented to a wide audience.

Now we are back on track, slowly moving back into the labs and offices. Our first project results out of Work Package 1 “Market Evaluation” will be published soon and those of Work Package 2 “Process Development” in autumn this year. The first four critical Milestones have been reached, see the milestone section for further details:

• Pilot scale for the recycling of PVC flooring waste justified
• CreaSolv^® Process customized for Circular Flooring
• Hydrogenation route for legacy plasticizers have been developed
• Possible PVC formulations

The next General Assembly will be hosted by KU Leuven (Belgium). We do hope that the situation will significantly improve but anyhow it will most likely be an online meeting as well. So, we keep fingers crossed that we finally meet face-to-face again in summer 2021!