The POLITA (sustainable polymers for the home furnishing industry and the Basque word for “pretty”) project will develop processes and validate technologies for the use, manufacture, supply and processing of recycled polymer materials in the home furnishing industry. The project covers the whole value chain, from the companies that recycle the polymers to the manufacturers of the final products. At the end of the project, this will allow new relationships to be generated between the participating sectors and companies. In the short term, this will enable highly competitive products to be created that are outstanding in terms of sustainability.

The project will generate the necessary knowledge to establish processes to recover polymers from both pre-consumer and post-consumer materials, identifying those that are most suitable for use in home furnishing products and generating a pilot value chain to resolve the current challenge of supplying these types of materials.

This project will develop and validate new sustainable polymer materials and short local value chains to replace the fossil-based materials currently used in the furniture and building equipment sectors.

General objectives:

GO1 To develop competitive advantages in the home furnishing sector based on sustainability and product eco-design.

GO2 To create local value chains to ensure that there is the capacity to manufacture, supply and process recycled polymers that are suitable for home furnishing products.

GO3 To drive demand for recycled polymers in order to increase the current supply available on the Spanish market.

GO4 To increase the impact and visibility of home furnishing companies in international markets with high added value and strict sustainability requirements, enabling companies to comply with product certification requirements and compete in these markets.

Specific objectives:

SO1 To identify and develop recycling solutions for polymer materials which are suitable to replace virgin polymers that are mainly used in the home furnishing sector: PP, PA, PC-ABS.

SO2 To validate the use of recycled polymers in 3 final product categories: chairs, electrical mechanisms and electronic locks, through the creation of laboratory-scale prototypes.

SO3 To integrate eco-design into the home furnishing sector from the early stages of product development and to develop criteria for sustainability-related decision-making, providing the sector with agile LCA and LCC assessment tools.

SO4 To test and validate the developed polymers in 2 different processing procedures: additive manufacturing and injection moulding. To compare the design possibilities and limitations offered by additive manufacturing for home furnishing products.

SO5 To build strong relationships between plastic recyclers, processors and the manufacturers of home furnishing final products.

SO6 To disseminate the results and developments of the project and attract 40 companies (mainly SMEs).

• AEI Spanish Plastics Centre
• Ondarreta Mesas y Sillas, SL
• DHEMEN
• NIESSEN
• IK Ingeniería
• OJMAR
• Plásticos Urteta
• AEI HABIC - Cluster association of the home furnishing, wood, office and contract sectors
• LEARTIKER

• Finding and analysing suitable post-industrial and post-consumer sources of materials for the home furnishing sector.
• Development of recycled material formulations for the different demonstrators being manufactured: chairs, electrical mechanisms and electronic locks.
• Adaptation of injection moulding and 3D printing processes to recycled materials.
• Assisting in the life cycle analysis of materials and products as well as in the development of the eco-design tool.
• Assisting in the manufacture of prototypes.
• Helping to create a new circular value chain for the home furnishing sector.