Circulary

In the EU, 1.6 million tonnes of carpets goes to waste every year. 60% of that ends of up in landfills, 37-39% is incinerated and 1-3% is recycled. The complexity of existing carpets, glued together with latex, has made it both technically difficult and economically uninteresting to recover materials for re-use.

DSM-Niaga re-designed the product of carpet from the ground-up, with full recycling as precondition. While existing carpets cannot be recycled into new carpets, carpets made with the Niaga® Technology can be fully recycled into new carpets, in a profitable way, again and again. The production technology for Niaga® allows for a mono-material polyester carpet, or a duo-material version with a reversible adhesive that supports all currently available fibers today. In contrast to existing carpets, Niaga® carpet does not include PVC, bitumen, latex and undisclosed fillers.

Applying Niaga® Technology in carpet manufacturing, all materials can be re-used for new carpets. So there is no downgrading and it could end the 1.6 million tonnes yearly waste stream. Emissions and energy use in production of Niaga® carpet are significantly lower than for conventional carpets due to the simplicity of the product and the production process.

Benefits are:

• No water use & 85% energy reduction during production.
• Reduced weight of the product.
• Easier installation as well as better cleanability, fire safety and indoor air quality.

• The current regulatory framework does not support the full recycling of carpets, especially by allowing carpet incineration and landfilling.
• Lack of information/disclosure requirements on materials used in carpets.
• Lack of information/disclosure requirements on how to separate different materials in products after use for valuable recycling.
• Carpets are not yet included in the Ecodesign Directive.

• Niaga (SME) & DSM (multinational) formed a Joint Venture
• Partners are Lacom (machine building) Cumapol (polyester recycling) Mattex (backing production & development)
• Recycling partners.

Lukas Hoex

+31624710867

lukas.hoex@dsm-niaga.com