Carpet recycling methods with VAE

There are several promising Carpet Recycling Methods:

1. Mechanical Recycling: This involves shredding carpets into smaller pieces, which can then be processed into new carpet fibers or other products. This method is effective for carpets made from materials like nylon and polyester. VAE can be beneficial here as a binder, being thermoplastic.
2. Chemical Recycling: This method breaks down carpet materials into their chemical components, which can then be used to create new fibers or other products. It’s particularly useful for recycling carpets with mixed materials. For chemical recycling preferably pure materials are used. VAE as a binder can dissolve and therefore the assembled materials can be sorted in an efficient way.
3. Monomaterial Recycling: This approach focuses on recycling carpets made from a single type of material, making the process simpler and more efficient. However, many carpets and artificial grass benefit from useing different materials, yarns, backings and filler. Which usually improves mechanical stability.
4. Use of Recycled Materials: Incorporating recycled materials, such as polyamide from fishing nets, into new carpets. This helps reduce waste and promotes a circular economy. By enabling useing and seperating carpet materials, also recycled materials can be easier used to increase recycled content.

Combining with Artificial Grass Recycling Methods:

Also artificial grass can be produced with VAE binders However, for sports grass there are higher demands for wet strengths, which would be contrary to the dissolution of the binder in a solution with water/surfactants/solvents. For artificial grass VAE has very promising properties.

By combining these methods for carpet and artificial grass, we can further reduce waste, conserve resources, and promote a more sustainable future.