CISUFLO (www.cisuflo.eu), an EU-funded joint project of the European Floor Coverings Association (EuFCA, Belgium; www.eufca.org) and other stakeholders in the flooring industry, is conducting a survey to achieve a better understanding of the potential market uptake of the separated materials by the plastics converting sector. The European Plastics Converters (EuPC, Brussels; www.plasticsconverters.eu) will write up a report summarizing the survey result at the EU level. The report will be shared with all participants.

The survey, which involves 18 partners including R&D centres, industry partners and associations, will end on November 15 2022.

Polymeric multilayer-structured materials are all extremely difficult to recycle as they are made up of multiple layers, and hence their end-of-life are in landfills or incinerators. Developing a methodology to separate polymers from polymeric multi-layered materials is important because separation of the individual polymer fractions enables subsequent recycling.

Related: Project to scale up on new recycling process for old PVC floorings

The survey covers topics like the level of purity for the separated material streams, the expected mechanical properties as well as the maximum allowed contamination level and moisture content for the secondary raw materials.

CISUFLO has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. It was set up by EuFCA with a team of research institutes, recycling companies and public authorities – see participants list here.