EU carpet industry working towards circular economy by 2030
Based in Brussels, Belgium, the European Carpet and Rug Association (ECRA), established in 2004, represents more than 40 leading carpet producers from six European countries. ECRA accounts for approximately 90 per cent of European textile wall-to-wall carpet production and 73 per cent of EU consumption. ECRA director general Edmund Vankann outlines EU’s carpet industry, the challenges it faces and its action plan for the future.
How big is the European carpet industry? How does it compare with rest of the world? How big is EU's export market for carpets?
Globally, Europe is the second largest carpet market. Whereas rugs and runners are mainly imported, typical wall-to-wall floor coverings are mainly produced inside the EU. Including textile floor coverings, synthetic turf, automotive carpets and other technical applications, the value of the EU production in 2018 was €4.56 billion (including an exported value to Rest of the World (RoW) countries of €1.12 billion).
Roughly 78 per cent of the EU production remains in the common market. This places the European carpet industry and its supply chain, one of the remaining essentially European. As these figures are based on 2018 figures, the UK market is still included.
The European carpet industry produces multiple products for diverse market segments, primarily for indoor environments, and in particular, wall-to-wall floor coverings for the construction sector, which are subject to EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR). Beyond this, carpets can also be found in trains, aircrafts, ships, and road transport, as well as on sports fields such as tennis courts and football pitches.
On an average, what percentage of carpets are recycled in EU per year?
Most of the carpets in the EU when becoming waste are used in Waste to Energy installations. Landfill of carpets is in many EU member states not allowed since years. But on the other side, the amount of already recycled carpets is very low, which is based on the fact that carpets becoming waste today have been produced before a decade or more, when recyclability was not part of the design process, or like in the case of imported rugs and runners, neither the material composition nor the chemicals used in the production processes are known which makes a safe recycling nearly impossible or extremely expensive.
Therefore, a transparent information on materials and chemicals will be necessary not only for EU produced carpets but also for imported ones. Our product passport developed together with our partner organisation GUT will play an important role in the future.
The shift to circular economy needs to be organised in a standardised way. Therefore, we are active in the standardisation process at CEN level.
We also need to ensure that innovation is driving the change and new technologies and circular materials become permanent features in the future EU carpet sector -- the use of sustainable and renewable products in the market, adhering to the circularity principles by creating an optimal value when the products reach end-of-life.
Volume-wise the role of the carpet industry is rather small compared to other polymer using sectors like packaging. But if the carpet sector can show, that an organised and innovation driven transition, even for difficult to recycle bulky products is possible, the effect this will have should not be underestimated.
What are the major benchmarks you have kept to achieve your goal of Circular Economy Action Plan 2.0?
Our strategy is built on forward looking key benchmark principles:
Develop our full potential for a robust and consistent shift to circular economy in a standardised way
Ensure innovation is driving the change
Make new technologies and circular materials permanent features of the future
Increase sustainable and renewable products in the market, adhering to the circularity principles
Create optimal value when the products reach end-of-life
Design for recycling
Ensure the availability of investments into the most advanced technologies
What is the USP of carpets from Europe? Which are the top 3 countries that lead in manufacturing?
The European carpet industry is focused on tufted wall-to-wall broadloom and tile carpets. The main carpet production happens in Belgium and The Netherlands. The biggest single market is the UK, directly followed by Germany.
What is the volume of carpets produced based on type of production?
The volumes remaining in the EU market by type of production are:
Knotted: 6.175.566 m² or 16 kT
Woven: 148.548.348 m² or 277 kT
Tufted: 360.005.874 m² or 709 kT
Needled: 125.343.505 m² or 125 kT
Others: 76.083.271 m² or 109 kT
Total: 716 Mio m² or 1,2 Mio T
What role can the carpet industry play in achieving Europe's ambitions for a climate-neutral and circular economy?
As a responsible European industry, we have already set an example in many ways. At GUT, we have developed industry specific rules on health and safety which ECRA members have complied with for over 30 years. These strict rules go far beyond EU regulations. We have also developed Carpet Recycling Europe (CRE, 2001-2004), the first post-consumer recycling activity for carpets. Moreover, ECRA is a founding member of CPA and we are currently developing the first European standard for the transparent definition and labelling of the recycled, bio-based and renewable material content of textile floor-coverings.
We believe we do have the potential to play a leading role in achieving Europe's ambitions for a climate-neutral and circular economy for which we did set an ambitious industry specific strategy and objectives covering the next decade. While we have made our ambition clear, we trust that it can only be achieved if it is fully supported by a well-functioning EU regulatory framework with adequate funding and financial incentives. Additionally, the active participation of all stakeholders within our global value chain is required to make these initiatives successful.
What kind of regulatory frameworks are in place and what is goal set for 2025-30?
The EU acquis Communautaire is the REACH of instruments that regulates parts of the EU strategy such as the eco-design directive, the waste framework directive, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and so on but what is important now is that the EU did set for itself an ambitious, forward looking and an integrated approach to achieve full circularity in the next 10 years. Within the mix, we are particularly looking forward to the review of the eco-design directive and the extension of its scope to the non-energy related products, the sustainable product initiative, and the textiles strategy, last but not the least the review of the Construction Product Regulation (CPR).
What are the key challenges the carpet industry faces today?
The key challenges for the industry today and in future is the organised transition from a linear industry to a circular one. There is:
a growing interest in greener products. This includes the use of materials which have a reduced environmental footprint such as bio-based, biodegradable, recycled and recyclable polymers. These can be used on their own or in combination with other materials.
a growing interest in the circular use of materials which means that products, or components, are recycled into either identical products or other items. This trend includes the search for efficient techniques for mechanical and chemical recycling and feedstock regeneration.
an overall goal to reduce the carbon footprint of products and processes.
a willingness to develop Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes which positively contribute to the circular economy.
a demand for transparent information regarding the environmental footprint of different products, and the creation of end-of-life solutions.
a real concern regarding the presence of micro-plastics in the environment, and how to prevent them.
the need to keep products affordable whilst transitioning to a circular economy.
This transition can only be realised when all stakeholders, including supply chain, customers and end users actively participate in this effort.
Could you elaborate on what happens to carpets at end-of-life? Which of the raw materials are difficult to recycle?
Concerning recyclability, the used material mix is the major problem to be solved. Design for recycling or circularity means basically finding the right material combinations, that on the one side will provide the required fitness for use aspects, but also easy separability of materials at a carpet's end-of- life.
Additionally, we see a clear focus on those materials that are easy or with already existing technologies recyclable. Today about 90 per cent of the polyamide face fibres used are Polyamide (PA) 6 based. The other big fibre segment are Polypropylene (PP) fibres, whereas Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) or Polytrimethylene Terephthalate (PTT) fibres do not play an important role, yet. In future, the focus will definitely be on polymer fibres with a certified recycled content and on bio-based materials.
What are your future action plans?
The European Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan 2.0 will accelerate the transition from a linear to a circular economy and constitutes an essential shift to a low-carbon Europe. ECRA supports this transition and presents realistic objectives and adequate measures in its strategy paper "Leading the carpet industry towards circular economy: a 2030 strategic approach". The latter is the framework for our future action plan for the next 10 years to accompany the EU in its efforts. (PC)
There is lot of greenwashing happening in the carpet industry. What could be the reasons and how to solve it?
Concerning your remark on greenwashing in the carpet industry I cannot agree with you. We have as ECRA developed one of the first sectors Product Category Rules (PCR) for the generation of environmental product declarations (EPDs) and published a related European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standard years ago. Our partner organisation Gemeinschaft umweltfreundlicher Teppichboden (GUT) in cooperation with our members have published over 300 third party validated environmental product declarations (EPDs). With GUT, we have developed industry specific rules on health and safety which ECRA members have complied with for over 30 years. These strict rules go far beyond EU regulations.
ECRA is a founding member of Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA). We are currently developing the first European standard for the transparent definition and labelling of the recycled, bio-based and renewable material content of textile floor coverings.
Published on: 16/03/2021
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
