Upcycling furniture polyurethane foam wastes

Economic development and increasing awareness of society are driving the plastics industry towards more sustainable solutions. Manufacturing of polymeric foams fits into such outlooks not only by the reduction of weight, material consumption, and costs, but also by providing superior insulation or damping performance. Unfortunately, their development implicates increased waste generation. Currently, an emphasis is placed on the efficient management of municipal and bulky waste consisting of furniture, upholstered goods, carpets, or rugs. The first two groups dominate among them due to the dynamic situation in the real estate market. Currently, a favorable approach to bulky waste management, enabling financial and environmental benefits, is to recycle and use it in further production processes to reduce the consumption of primary and natural resources. Using waste and keeping it in a loop is an important step towards the Circular Economy. The presented study investigated the upcycling of furniture-type waste polyurethane (PU) foams, processed by compression molding with the application of innovative binder composed of diisocyanate and inorganic salts, whose in situ decomposition yielded gas release providing porous structure of materials, and generated compounds binding waste PU foam scraps. The impact of foam type and binder formulation on the structure, mechanical, and thermal insulation performance have been explored. Presented results indicated that the proper upcycling procedure and application of innovative binder enable maintaining the porous structure typical for PU foams. Considering current environment-oriented policies, such an approach provide compromise between the low specific weight, mechanical performance and other functionalities like reduced thermal conductivity.