A steam explosion process is in use at a pilot plant in France to recycle laminate flooring and all MDF/HDF-containing products in general. Currently, the plant, which has been in operation since 2021, is  producing over 1 ton of recycled fibers per hour, and these fibers are reused in the production of new MDF/HDF products.

The European Panel Federation and Unilin are partners in the Horizon 2020 European project CISUFLO (CIrcular SUstainable FlOor coverings) which has as its main goal the transition to ​a sustainable circular flooring sector and is supported by innovation funds from the European Union. The consortium consists of 19 partners: industrial partners, research centers, and associations and the project covers laminate, textile, and vinyl floor coverings.

According to Unilin, product circularity is key for the preservation of our planet and solutions need to be developed to make current flooring materials circular by design by developing recycling technologies that recycle these products into new similar flooring products.

Laminate flooring in particular and all MDF/HDF-containing products in general, are often considered hardly recyclable and such products commonly end up in landfills or incineration at the end of life.

To close the recycling loop, Unilin said it has developed a revolutionizing technology based on a steam explosion process. This allows the extraction of valuable wood fibers from MDF/HDF-containing products (in particular laminate flooring). These fibers are then prepared for reuse and used as a replacement for virgin fibers in an HDF production process. This allows for the recycling of the main part of laminate flooring, being the core HDF.

Unilin has spearheaded this initiative by establishing a pilot line at its MDF mill in Bazeilles, France. Since 2021 this line has been refined to the process needs of the recycling process. The 1 ton of recycled fibers that are captured per hour is considered a small recycling unit, but the success demonstrates the "huge potential of the developed technology: not only the fact that fibers can be extracted and reused, with no significant impact on quality but the recycling can be done at economically interesting conditions. In fact, the way the process performs, it even saves electrical/thermal energy compared to the energy required for producing wood fibers based on virgin wood, the company said.

This success refutes the sometimes perceived image of MDF/HDF as a non-recyclable product and instead demonstrates its circularity, for which European wood-based panels are known, the company added.