How can a recycled textile composite be applied for interior and furniture products?

This research project was conducted for Dansk Wilton, a DK based carpet brand situated in the city of Herning that was founded in 1953 by Johannes Jensen. Since the 1970’s large parts of the brands’ core customers have been luxury hotels and cruise ships and their products are custom-made and high quality.

As cruise ships sail all over the world, logistics are highly complicated, so embarking on take-back schemes is a vast task that will entail substantial work before it can be successful. Due to the luxury segment, there is a rapid use phase of 4-5 years in average since everything needs to look new and luxurious at all times. In refurbishments on cruise ships the carpets are often dismantled far away from Denmark, so it makes little sense in an environmental perspective to bring them back to Denmark for repurposing.

For the research work in this project the following objectives were investigated:

• Investigation of design opportunities/barriers with regards to fire retardants

• Investigation of design opportunities/barriers with regards to surface treatments

• Design development work and strategic collection work for take-back

• Mapping of possible collaborate partners for a new take-back collection

• Mapping of potential scope and business model for repurposing carpet waste

It was important to investigate and seek out knowledge within several specific parameters in order to be able to further develop this non-woven material in both product requirements as well as design and aesthetics. Therefore the following elements were part of the research work:

Fire retardants, acoustic, Benchmark, coatings, compression molding, business model, local furniture factories, consultants, building a collection, design process, visual identity.

The final product (table) was designed and produced by the Danish company Easy Fair using the recycled carpet waste material from Dansk Wilton.