A detailed consultants’ report released recently has included two policy blueprints for shifting Europe’s major carpet manufacturing industry towards a more sustainable future, increasing recycling and the reuse of products. The paper, by UK-based Eunomia Research & Consulting, outlines policy options for European Union (EU) member states to move the carpet industry towards being part of a circular economy that is a key priority of the current European Commission.
Noting that around 1.6 million tonnes of carpet waste is generated in the EU annually, the report – ‘Policy Toolkit for Carpet Circularity in EU Member States’ notes that while carpets are often made from oil-based plastics, less than 3% of European carpet waste is currently recycled, and less is reused.
“There are also significant concerns about the hazardous substances they contain and the impact these can have on indoor air quality and health. There is therefore a huge opportunity to reduce the environmental and health impact of carpet and recover far more of the resources they contain,” declares the report.
Commissioned by the Netherlands-based Changing Markets Foundation, the report includes two policy package models to push Europe’s carpet sector towards more sustainable practice, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that by 2025 all commercial and household carpets sold in the current EU, both broadloom and tiles, pose no health risks, and are separately collected when disposed of, are reusable and fully recyclable.
“Governments must play a key role in this transition by putting in place ambitious policies to ramp up the recycling efforts in the sector. This toolkit provides a blueprint…,” says Nusa Urbancic, Changing Markets Foundation campaigns director.
The first – more comprehensive – policy package includes mandatory minimum essential requirements for manufacturers to phase out all hazardous materials/substances used in carpet making; provide a minimum five-year warranty to consumers; set minimum recycled/organic content levels; set minimum recyclability requirements; help recyclers and collectors pick up carpets; and mandate installation techniques that allow easy removal of carpets. The package would also insist that producers be made subject to mandatory and progressive targets for recycling and promoting reuse, with these suppliers covering the full costs of collections and waste treatment. Manufacturers making carpets with eco-designs beyond minimum essential requirements should be rewarded and those releasing ‘sub-optimally designed products’ should be penalised. Innovators could receive tax breaks, grants and/or low interest loans. A mandatory green carpet mark (GCM) grading and labelling system would be established and a compulsory green public procurement system linked to this mark would be established for public sector purchases of carpets.
A second alternative, less onerous, policy package was also detailed, involving the mandatory eco-design standards, a mandatory take back or deposit refund scheme for carpet tiles and events carpets, combined with promoting free municipal bulk waste collection for residential carpets deemed reusable or recyclable. It also requires progressive national targets for recycling and promoting the reuse of carpets, along with a mandatory use of the green carpet mark for grading and labelling.
The report noted that around 65% of EU demand for carpets is fulfilled by EU-based manufacturing, which is high compared to other textile products, with leading companies including Belgium’s Associated Weavers, Balta, and the Beaulieu International Group; Britain’s Brintons; the Netherlands’ Forbo; and France’s Tarkett, along with its Dutch subsidiary Desso.
For more on the report, see: http://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/policy-toolkit-for-carpet-circularity-in-eu-member-states/
