From carpets to car parts

We still find it incredible that breaking down the component parts of a carpet tile or other textile flooring, can result in the birth of thousands of new products. But it requires commitment and partnerships to get the original material into a state ready for recycling.

At the annual Ecobuild conference in London, there was obviously a large amount of carpet laid and thanks to collaboration between Ecobuild, Global  Experience Specialists (GES) and Green Venture UK, 62,000 square metres of exhibition carpet has been successfully recycled for use in new polypropylene products.

Using a unique recovery system, Green Venture transferred the uplifted carpets to a recycling plant in France. From here raw materials were extracted to make a polypropylene resin which can then be used in the manufacture of a range of products such as car parts and plant pots.

What’s so amazing about this is the planning and the way all the protagonists worked together to make it happen. Instead of ditching the carpets and sending them off to landfill, which let’s face it would have been less problematic and easier, the three parties showed real environmental awareness and dedication to make sure that every scrap could be re-used.

GES have a history when it comes to recycling as they also fitted carpets at last year’s 2012 RWM Event in Birmingham. Supported by CRUK, they helped to create value from these uplifted carpets by collaborating with South Wales-based recycler Tilon Composites, who were able to extrude polypropylene fibres for use in building products such as scaffold boards and acoustic barriers.

So next time you buy a new car, just imagine that at some point, it’s highly likely thousands of people have walked across part of your vehicle.