CIRCULAR FLOORING

End-of-life flexible PVC floor coverings potentially contain ‘legacy plasticisers’, which can no longer be used due to consumer protection concerns. Recovery of PVC in virgin-like quality through state-of-the-art recycling of such flooring is not possible yet. Instead, these materials are often incinerated and valuable resources are irreversible destroyed. The EU-funded CIRCULAR FLOORING project will meet the challenge of establishing a circular economy for flexible PVC flooring with an innovative plastic recycling process. The objective is to gently recycle end-of-life PVC floor coverings by dissolving such waste in a selective solvent and remove critical substances, e.g. restricted plasticizers (phthalates), to achieve a high-quality, virgin-like PVC material. The removed phthalates will be transformed chemically into non-hazardous plasticizers. Both, the recycled PVC and the transformed plasticizer are going back to the production cycle of new floor covering, pointing towards a circular economy.