Danish partnership aims to recycle wool-nylon carpeting

A  Danish partnership, UnBlend, seeks to address the recyclability of carpets and upholstery fabrics from ships and hotels.

The goal is to simplify the recycling of wool-nylon blended textiles; they are durable but challenging to recycle and thus end up incinerated or in a landfill.

Wool-nylon blends are overlooked because they make up only a small part of the total textile stream. However, they can provide a large, uniform supply ideal for large-scale recycling following hotel or ship renovations. A cruise ship can contain enough carpet to cover five to 10 soccer fields, the organization describes.

Rather than focusing solely on a single technical solution, the project partners are working along three parallel tracks: designing for recyclability, creative reuse and recycling technologies.

Design is exploring using fewer types of adhesives and using material combinations that make disassembly easier in preparation for recycling. Existing and new recycling technologies are being tested to find effective methods for separating wool and nylon so that the two fibers can be recycled separately.

The project will run for two years and is supported by TRACE, a partnership working to create a circular economy for plastics and textiles by 2050. Partners include Gabriel, SheWorks, Dansk Wilton, DTU, Design School Kolding and the Danish Technological Institute.

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