Switchable adhesives for carpet tiles: a major breakthrough in sustainable flooring

The estimated sales for carpet tiles in the EEA is 45 million m2 representing both an enormous resource and environmental burden with ca. 70 million kg of tile incinerated or landfilled every year in Europe alone. To alleviate the end-of-life problem a facile route to disassemble the multi-layered tiles is needed, but this is currently impractical due to the powerful adhesives used to bind the layers. Herein we report on a novel starch based adhesive, which is not only effective at binding the layers but is switchable, using an inexpensive treatment, derivable from a renewable and low cost resource and provides a remarkable degree of flame retardancy to the carpet tile. Our results not only show how we can reduce a massive product-specific waste problem, but also demonstrate a more general approach to greener product design encompassing end-of-life considerations.