Description
In the UK, 85,000 tons of duvets and pillows are disposed or stored annually, with a 3% reuse and recycle rate. In France, 10,000 tons of these items could be collected annually. The majority is currently landfilled in the UK or burnt for energy recovery in France. There is currently no insulation in the French or UK markets made using recycled polyester bedding waste.
To address this issue, the micro-project BIO-CIRC aims to produce, test and deploy 3 prototypes of low carbon insulation from recycled polyester duvet fibres and natural fibres.
Instead of creating new costly processes, the partnership will work with existing technologies such as re-fiberisation, sanitisation and insulation manufacturing, with the objective to repurposing and creating new fibre combinations (recycled polyester and natural fibres) for improved insulation performance.
To ensure a higher uptake of Natural and Recycled Fibre Insulation, the cross-border partnership will produce training material and hold conferences with the objective to raise awareness about the uptake and development of low carbon technologies. Technologies developed as part of the project can be replicated.
The BIO-CIRC micro-project is built on the results of the successful Interreg FCE SB&WRC project, a 2 year and a half project also led by Nomadéis as Lead Partner which closed in 2019.