03/27/2026

Danish Partnership Launches Initiative to Recycle Ship and Hotel Textiles for a Sustainable Future (3/27/26)

Danish partnership aims to recycle overlooked textiles Carpets and upholstery fabrics from ships and hotels have significant recycling potential that is not currently being fully utilised. A Danish partnership aims to change that. Many offices, hotels, ships and other public spaces are fitted with carpets and upholstery fabrics made from wool-nylon blends. The combination of materials gives the products a very long lifespan, but complicates the recycling process when they are replaced. Manufacturers, researchers and knowledge partners have joined forces in the UnBlend partnership, which aims to make textiles easier to reuse and recycle. Aiming to extend the lifespan of wool-nylon textiles Tons of high-quality carpets and upholstery fabrics go up in smoke when offices, hotels, ships, libraries, theatres and other public spaces refurbish their interiors. In the EU alone, an estimated 1.6 million tonnes of carpets are disposed of every year, and the vast majority are incinerated or end up in landfill. The challenge with carpets and upholstery fabrics is that the textiles often consist of complex blended materials such as wool and nylon, which are currently difficult to recycle, even though the material quality is high. It’s a shame, says Business Manager Julie Brender Trads from Danish Technological Institute, who heads the UnBlend partnership: – Wool-nylon blends are high-quality materials that are easily overlooked because they make up only a small part of the total textile stream. On the other hand, it is a large and uniform textile stream that can be collected when a hotel or ship changes its interior or undergoes renovation. A cruise ship can easily be covered with enough carpet to cover 5–10 football pitches. These large quantities are an advantage when the ambition is large-scale recycling. From circular design to unique products UnBlend takes a holistic approach to the challenge of wool-nylon blends. Rather than focusing solely on a single technical solution, the project partners are working in parallel on three tracks: better design, creative reuse and recycling technologies. The design track explores how products can be constructed more intelligently, for example using fewer types of adhesive and more appropriate material combinations, facilitating later disassembly and recycling among other things. At the same time, the partners are experimenting with reusing and redesigning textile scraps into unique products. Finally, existing and new recycling technologies are being tested to find effective methods for separating wool and nylon, so that the two fibres can be recycled separately and returned to the cycle.