PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The manufacturing of carpet is linear: virgin raw materials are used to make yarn, backing and other materials, which are then used to manufacture carpets. This process is not sustainable in the long run: it consumes large quantities of primary resources and adds considerably to waste sent to landfill. Europe discards annually approximately 1 600 kilotonnes of post-consumer carpet material. Some 60% of this material is sent to landfill, which is undesirable because the materials in carpets – especially nylon – are generally not biodegradable. Carpet waste not landfilled is generally incinerated in municipal waste incinerators or cement kilns. The main environmental impacts of carpets throughout their lifecycle are the use of energy and (scarce) resources for the production of raw materials, pollution of soil and groundwater caused by landfilling, and air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases caused by incineration. Of these impacts, the first is by far the most important: the main environmental impact of carpets is related to the production of materials that are used in the manufacturing process, notably in the production of nylon yarn.
In 2009, DESSO established a take-back and recycling programme for used carpets in six EU countries. While the amount of carpet waste returned is steadily increasing, there are still some technical challenges in the separation of the waste material into reusable compounds.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE ClosedLoopCarpet project would demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of a separation line based on innovative shredding and cryogenic separation technology, capable of separating discarded carpet material into its primary resources, which can directly be used in the production of new carpets or for depolymerisation. The project expected to increase the purity of the final material from 85% to at least 97%. Since closed-loop carpet recycling is not possible without this process, this could be considered a breakthrough technology.
The project aimed to:
- Develop a cradle-to-cradle manufacturing process for carpets;
- Produce recovered material of high quality, which is necessary for reuse in high-quality applications. For this, a sophisticated separation and purification line is required to ensure that the recovered materials, including polyamide (one of the main resources in carpet manufacturing), can be reused; and
- Recycle each output material as much as possible of into new high grade materials.
RESULTS
The LIFE ClosedLoopCarpet project team demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of a separation line for discarded carpets based on an innovative shredding and separation technology, to obtain material that can be directly used in the production of new carpets.
In 2009, the project beneficiary DESSO Holding set up a take back and recycling programme for used carpets in Europe. Since then, used carpets have been transported to its facilities in Waalwijk in the Netherlands from all over Europe.
Tests performed during the LIFE project have led to the implementation, at Waalwijk, of an innovative pilot line capable of separating used carpets into their key components, namely nylon yarn and backing. The recovered nylon can be recycled into new yarn, in collaboration with the Italian yarn specialist Aquafil. The company's EcoBase backing material can be recycled in the Waalwijk premises; the bitumen-based backing will be recycled in the cement industry.
The pilot installation consists of several steps, enabling the separation of materials in an energy- and material-efficient manner:
- Step 1 - Separation: The sorted carpet is fed into the installation in order to separate the yarn from the backing.
- Step 2 - Purification: The yarn is processed further to remove remaining backing material to obtain a material ready for recycling. An average purity of >95% can be achieved through this process.
The project team performed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that showed that recycling carpets is more environmental friendly than incineration with recovery of energy. The most significant positive environmental impact is obtained by replacing virgin nylon, which has a high CO2 footprint, with the recovered nylon.
Based on the technical results achieved, and the positive environmental analysis (LCA) and the positive financial outlook (cost-benefit analysis), DESSO Holding decided to implement an industrial-scale carpet recycling facility in its premises in Waalwijk.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
