Pont Aurell y Armengol and the Eurecat technology centre have kicked off a project to develop new advanced materials from carpet and upholstery fabric leftovers in a process which will make it possible to recover the 452.1 tons of waste generated by the company every year.
The project is called MOTE and has drawn up a circular economy system to take advantage of the carpet and upholstery fabric leftovers generated in the company’s production process by using them as a mould in the development of thermoplastic composite materials for manufacturing plastic parts.
“Innovative processing of carpet and fabric leftovers to produce high added value materials coupled with reintroducing their components into the production process is an essential and significant opportunity,” says Mª Eugenia Rodríguez, director of the Composite Materials Unit at Eurecat.
By developing waste recovery and recycling methodologies “we avoid waste incineration which brings significant environmental benefits along with financial gains for the company,” adds Mercè Armengol, quality manager and a director at Pont Aurell y Armengol.
Three stages have been planned to achieve this goal. The first consists of systematic study to identify the main physicochemical characteristics of the materials together with separation and grinding procedures to get high quality fragments of the carpet and upholstery fabric components.
The second stage involves assessing and selecting additives to make composite materials from the extrusion compounding waste. In the third stage, the compounds’ rheological, thermal and mechanical parameters are determined.
This project is part of the Catalan Waste Agency’s call for grants for fostering the circular economy and “helps to enhance process management and reduce the amount of fabrics we need to manage as waste by finding new ways of recovering them,” says Mª Eugenia Rodríguez.
Furthermore, “it has enabled us to gain the knowledge needed to scale up the project’s results and get high added value products from carpets and upholstery fabrics resulting in a better economic and environmental balance,” notes Mercè Armengol.
3,793,349 million tons of industrial waste
In Catalonia, 3,793,349 million tons of industrial waste were generated in 2017, including 70,940 tons from the textile industry (textiles, footwear and leather) representing 1.9 percent of total industrial waste. Only 50.2 percent of waste in this industry is sent for recovery while the remaining 35,352.5 tons go to landfill or incineration.
