CISUFLO Project Leads Discuss Its Achievements and Challenges

As the CISUFLO project came to an end last year in June 2025, Ine De Vilder, Research Scientist at Centexbel, and Project Coordinator Guy Buyle discussed the achievements of the project and also some of the challenges that it has faced. Centexbel was the coordinating organisation of the project, and is the Belgian-based collective centre which provides an extensive range of activities like R&D and services to the textile, plastics and flooring sectors. 

The CISUFLO project, in which the CFA played a role as a trade association partner, was founded on collaboration. It brought together different materials – laminate, vinyl, carpet – as well as all different players involved and their complementary fields of expertise. Ine De Vilder likened it to a puzzle, figuring out who can do what, seeing where cooperation is possible and bringing in contacts from outside, and eventually you have a consortium working together.

The cooperation which CISUFLO embodied certainly led to good results. The project ran pilots for each of the three types of floorcovering in its focus, one of which has actually made the transfer to an industrial line. It is quite rare that this happens with a pilot line during the life of an EU project, say Ine De Vilder and Guy Buyle. CISUFLO made it possible for the Unilin laminate pilot line in France to be rebuilt into an industrial line, greatly increasing capacity.

‘The laminate recycling line is the main achievement of the project, a really nice result,’ says Ine. ‘It does not happen often within this type of European project that you get an industrial line within this timeframe. In my view it is exceptional that you get that far.’

Vinyl presents a unique challenge because you can only add a maximum of 5–10% recycled content in the backing layer using the conventional plastisol technology. After that, the viscosity of the material starts changing too much for it to be used. PVC from recycled materials behaves differently to virgin PVC and doesn’t work well, although there is work going on with extrusion and calendaring processes which might lead to a breakthrough. Recycled PVC is not compatible with the current plastisol technology, so there needs to be a shift in production technologies.

With LVT you can add up to 100% recycled PVC, as it is an extrusion-based technology – different from cushioned vinyl. You can use mechanically recycled materials such as window profiles or end-of-life LVT for this and the technology works well. But flexible resilient remains an issue, because you cannot just substitute virgin material with recycled vinyl.

End-of-life carpet needs to have above 85% Polyamide 6 content to make it economically viable to be recycled as a mono-material carpet. An eco-designed carpet produced by Edel Carpets was installed at FITA’s Loughborough Training Centre. Aquafil, an Italian company that for over 50 years has been a leading player in the production of Polyamide 6 and which claims to be the only company in the world to produce 100% recycled nylon, reports that technical tests have so far been successful. The carpet was recently uplifted to be assessed as an end-of-life carpet to ascertain the impact of the installed tackifier and the continuity of its recyclability.

You need the 85% Polyamide 6, which becomes difficult if you have a carpet with a very short pile. This approach therefore is probably not be for the commercial market, but only domestic. So that looks like the main drawback of our mono-material approach so far.

‘We were looking at a separation layer approach meaning that you can combine it with a conventional backing. By melting the back of the piles you don’t need latex to fix them,’ says Ine De Vilder. ‘If you add a separation layer, you can put a conventional backing for a carpet tile for example. This separation layer can be loosened at end-of-life by heating it, which re-melts it, allowing the separation of both layers. 

‘We also looked at the potential for recycling conventional carpet, that is carpet which was not designed with recycling in mind. The PolySep technology involves a solvent treatment, followed by exposure to steam, the aim being to separate the different layers. However, it turned out that the pilot line was not fit for carpets, because you have to start by shredding the carpet, and this creates a lot of fluffy material which blocks the line.

‘So you try different things – some are successful, others are not. What you can continue to learn from these trials is the most important thing.’

Another important strand of the project, say Ine and Guy, was to carry out an overview of tagging, looking at watermarks, QR codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to see what is out there and establish the pros and cons. This aspect was spearheaded by the German-based research institute TFI Aachen GmbH. The idea was both to provide consumer guidance about product maintenance, as well as necessary information for the recycler.

‘Ideally we would have loved to come up with one solution for all flooring types, but unfortunately this has not been possible, taking into account both the economic and technical aspects. RFID is an established technology and communicates well, but it is expensive if they need to be temperature resistant. It is still the best option for carpet, as it can be embedded during production and is not visible. But there are always pros and cons to the different methods. If you use a printed label, that is not really going to work once the carpet is installed. QR codes can be easily printed on LVT or laminate planks, but are not visible during the use phase. Watermarking is very promising as it can be placed on the top side of the smooth flooring, where you cannot see it, but where it can still be read using a smart phone. Although it works on cushion vinyl flooring, for example, it’s no good for carpet as it has no flat surface.’

Lifecycle assessments have been important as well, since they are useful in comparing conventional materials with recycled materials.

‘There was a lot of interest from the focus groups in this,’ says Ine De Vilder. ‘More than a decade ago you hardly saw any LCAs, then there was product LCA, now we are just beginning with social LCAs, so this has changed very quickly. 

‘It is important both to increase the proportion of recycled content and also to engineer the products so that they can be recycled for longer without losing value. If you are just adding recycled content you can do it once and that’s it, but if you design the products to be recycled, then you can start creating a loop.

‘For textiles we have the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes. EPR will act as a driver to harmonise these takeback schemes. Producers will need to think about what to do with the waste, as they have a responsibility there. It will also be important to consider carefully an EPR scheme for carpets, as it is a totally different material from textile clothing for example.’ A European project called Circula-Tex is covering this issue.

Although some of the developments might have taken place without the CISUFLO project, Ine and Guy believe, in summary, that it played an important role, particularly with regard to achieving the necessary funding and bringing everyone together collaboratively.

‘The project helped to lower the risks for the companies involved, by providing resources to enable a thorough investigation of what is feasible. It has enabled cooperation, which is the way progress is going to be made. Any company on its own can look at the technical feasibility of recycling technology, but the sector needs more than that. You have to consider the whole value chain, how waste can be collected, you need to develop the business model – there are a lot of things that need to fit together to provide circularity, and you need to consider best practice and the relevant legislation.’

Visit the CFA Guide to Sustainability 2025–2026 to read more about the CISUFLO project.

Find more information from the CISUFLO website and download the deliverables: www.cisuflo.eu/download2/public-deliverables/