European carpet manufacturer Desso brings Cradle to Cradle® design to region; Ecobase carpet tiles can be reused or recycled
European carpet manufacturer Desso is now going beyond mere sustainability by embracing Cradle to Cradle® design principles and producing a carpet tile range with a polyolefin-based backing. Carpet tiles with this backing have reached a level where up to 97% of the materials are positively defined 1. That means all ingredients have been assessed as either optimal or tolerable, according to the Cradle to Cradle® assessment criteria and can be reused or recycled, therefore potentially reducing the pressure on UAE landfill sites.
According to waste management officials at Dubai Municipality one of its two landfill sites will close soon and the other will reach capacity in less than seven years, with each Dubai resident sending on average 2.8 kilos of waste to the landfill every day. It's a similar story in Abu Dhabi which generates 10 million tonnes of municipal waste annually in the emirate, according to the Centre for Waste management in Abu Dhabi.
"Contributing to that problem are the millions of square metres of worn-out carpet that is thrown away every year. In Dubai alone there is 9.2 million square metres of office space with potentially another 1.6 million square metres coming on line this year according to the Q4 2012 Asteco Property Management Report. Clearly not all of that space is occupied, but imagine that amount of carpet being incinerated or dumped over the coming years as worn carpet is replaced, creating yet more waste management headaches," Andre Dulka, Regional Director, Middle East, Africa & India, for Desso.
Desso was the first carpet manufacturer in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to adopt the Cradle to Cradle® design, which is about creating continuous cycles of both biological and technical 'nutrients'. This means that products are made from positively defined materials that are easy to disassemble, in order to create new products in both the biological and technical cycles, whilst using manufacturing processes which rely on renewable energy, seek to conserve water, and to embrace social responsibility.
1. Positively defined = all ingredients have been assessed as either Green (optimal) or Yellow (tolerable) according to the Cradle to Cradle® assessment criteria. As described in the Cradle to Cradle® Certification Program Version 2.1.1, prepared by MBDC September 2008, updated January 2010.
Within this concept Desso introduced a new carpet tile backing called Desso EcoBase®. Carpet tiles which have achieved Cradle to Cradle® Silver Certification reaching a level where up to 97% of the materials are positively defined.
Prior to formal Cradle to Cradle® certification being granted, products, materials and components must all undergo a rigorous assessment procedure. The initial stages of the certification process comprise assessing raw materials in terms of human and environmental health criteria, and evaluating the manufacturing process according to recycling potential, energy and water use, and social responsibility.
To achieve that milestone, Desso developed an innovative separation technique called Refinity®, which enables the company to separate the yarn and other fibres from the backing, thereby producing two main material streams which can be recycled.
After an additional purification stage, the yarn (with the required purity) is returned to the yarn manufacturer for the production of new yarn. Some virgin material is needed to compensate for losses and process inefficiency.
The bitumen backing (used in most carpet tiles in Europe presently) is reused in road construction and the roofing sector. All non-recyclable fractions will be used as secondary fuel in the cement industry. The polyolefin based layer of the Desso EcoBase® backing is 100% safely recyclable.
In addition Desso took steps to ensure that it clients' old carpets would be safely recycled by launching its TakeBack™ programme to ensure that products will be recycled according to Cradle to Cradle® principles.
"We can take back all types of used carpet, except for those products containing PVC, to ensure it will be safely recycled into new carpet products, or used in other recycling initiatives. By sourcing positively defined raw materials, introducing new manufacturing methods and collecting used carpets from clients, we are doing everything we can to achieve a closed loop process (from production to use and back again)," said Dulka.
Desso aims to collect 50,000 tonnes of post-consumer carpet by 2020.
-Ends-
For more information, please log on to www.desso.com
Media contact:
Nathalie Visele
Director
Shamal Marketing Communications
Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 4 365 2711
Mobile: +971 50 457 6525
Email: nathalie@smc-pr.com
Website: www.smc-pr.com
© Press Release 2013
