European Resilient Flooring Manufacturers’ Institute

Author: Jane Gardner, Managing Director, ERFMI

Project Loop: Building the Blueprint for Circular PVC Flooring in Europe

The European Resilient Flooring Manufacturers’ Institute (ERFMI) has set an ambitious target: to recycle 60,000 tonnes of post-consumer PVC flooring annually by 2030 — approximately 10% of estimated yearly arising. This represents a step change from today’s recycling rate of less than 1%.

Project Loop, developed under the Circular Buildings Coalition (CBC) Blueprint Project Programme, marks the first structured step toward delivering this ambition. CBC funding has enabled ERFMI to move from concept to implementation — establishing the technical and collaborative foundations required to scale post-consumer recycling across Europe.

PVC flooring is mechanically recyclable. However, uncertainty around legacy additives in older products has limited the safe reuse of post-consumer material. As a result, most used flooring enters mixed construction and demolition waste streams and is incinerated.

Project Loop addresses this barrier through a pilot collection and sorting hub in Belgium, designed as a replicable model for Europe-wide rollout.

From Waste Stream to Circular System

Belgium was selected for its manageable scale, strong construction waste culture and regulatory maturity, including mandatory pre-demolition audits in Flanders. ERFMI mapped material flows, assessed infrastructure needs and explored viable business models.

At the centre of the model is a sorting hub capable of distinguishing legacy from non-legacy PVC flooring using advanced detection technologies. Today, most post-consumer flooring is sorted manually, limiting accuracy and scalability. Project Loop introduces automated detection and sorting processes, enabling reliable identification of legacy material at scale. By generating verified, legacy-free recyclate, manufacturers can confidently reintroduce post-consumer content into new products — closing the loop.

Key Opportunities and Challenges

Market analysis confirmed that most post-consumer flooring currently enters mixed waste streams. Data gaps remain, but engagement with demolition specialists and waste management companies has been constructive, with several willing to extract flooring where viable downstream solutions exist.

A central technical challenge is reliable legacy detection. The pilot will test automated near-infrared (NIR) sorting, supported by hand-held detection where necessary.

A Blueprint for Scale

The CBC Blueprint phase has reinforced a critical lesson: circularity in long-life construction products depends on coordination across collectors, hub operators, recyclers and manufacturers — aligned around shared specifications, transparency and economic incentives.

The initial pilot will collect and sort approximately 10 tonnes of post-consumer PVC flooring. More importantly, it will generate robust data on volumes, legacy share, process costs and recyclate performance — essential for scaling and investment decisions.

Project Loop demonstrates how industry ambition and targeted infrastructure development can unlock circularity in resilient flooring. Through CBC’s Blueprint support, the sector has taken a decisive step toward transforming post-consumer PVC flooring from residual waste into a circular resource.

Building on this foundation, ERFMI is progressing discussions at European level to support the next stage of implementation and wider deployment. The Blueprint phase has positioned the sector to move from pilot validation toward broader roll-out. The next phase is clear: test, refine and scale.

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Find out about ERFMI here.