Circular Flooring

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 821366 Used flexible PVC floor coverings may contain specific plasticisers that can no longer be used today because of the European REACH regulation that aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances. These legacy plasticisers cannot be removed by the currently used and well-established mechanical recycling processes. Until now, the only way to dispose end of life flooring containing these plasticisers has been thermal recovery, which wastes valuable raw materials. Circular Flooring is focused on the recovery of the PVC compound from post-consumer PVC floor coverings and the separation of legacy plasticiser in order to create a recycled material for the manufacturing of new PVC floor covering. For this purpose, the Circular Flooring consortium uses the patented, innovative CreaSolv® plastic recycling process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV. The recovered PVC compound has virgin-like quality, is compliant with EU legislation and meets consumer needs with regard to circular economy. Imprint: https://www.bayfor.org/en/imprint.php