B.I.G. FLOORCOVERINGS

Their core work

B.I.G. Floorcoverings is a large Belgian manufacturer of floor coverings — PVC/vinyl, laminate, carpets, and resilient flooring — based in Wielsbeke, a town at the heart of Belgium's flooring industry cluster. In the EU research context, they function as an industrial anchor: providing real product streams, manufacturing know-how, and commercial validation to academic and research consortia working on circular economy challenges. Their involvement centers on making laboratory findings viable at industrial scale — ensuring that recycling processes and sustainable material solutions actually work with the waste and products that a major manufacturer generates. They do not lead or coordinate EU projects, but their participation gives research consortia direct access to the flooring industry's real-world constraints.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

B.I.G.'s H2020 involvement began with a narrow, chemistry-driven problem: how to safely recycle PVC-P flooring waste contaminated with harmful plasticizers like DEHP and heavy metals such as lead and tin. By 2021, the focus had broadened considerably — CISUFLO moves from single-material chemistry to a systemic view of all major flooring types, introducing concepts like "systemic innovation" and covering carpets and laminate alongside PVC. This trajectory suggests B.I.G. is not just solving a compliance problem but repositioning itself as a leader in circular flooring across its entire product portfolio.

B.I.G. Floorcoverings is moving from targeted chemical hazard remediation in PVC toward industry-wide circular economy systems — making them an increasingly relevant partner for any consortium tackling sustainable building materials at scale.

How they like to work

B.I.G. participates exclusively as a third party — contributing industrial expertise and real product streams without holding a formal project role or receiving direct EC funding. This is a deliberate posture typical of large manufacturers who want to shape research direction and access results while avoiding the administrative overhead of coordination. Despite only two projects, they are connected to 41 distinct consortium partners, reflecting the large multi-stakeholder consortia that characterize EU circular economy research.

Through just two projects, B.I.G. has built ties with 41 unique consortium partners across 10 countries — an unusually broad network for such limited direct participation, driven by the large consortium structures of both CIRCULAR FLOORING and CISUFLO. Their connections likely span research institutes, chemical companies, waste processors, and other flooring manufacturers across the EU.

What sets them apart

B.I.G. Floorcoverings occupies a rare position: a large industrial manufacturer willing to open its real production processes and waste streams to EU-funded research, rather than simply buying the results afterward. For researchers and consortia, this means access to genuine industrial-scale materials and market feedback that most academic partners cannot provide. In the circular flooring space specifically, they offer coverage across PVC, laminate, carpet, and resilient flooring — making them one of few industry partners who can validate circular solutions across the full product range, not just a single material type.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CIRCULAR FLOORING
  Tackles one of the flooring industry's most persistent environmental liabilities — legacy PVC-P waste laden with banned phthalates and heavy metals — combining industrial chemistry with end-of-life waste treatment in a technically demanding five-year effort.
• CISUFLO
  Notable for its ambition to address circular sustainability across all flooring categories simultaneously, treating the entire flooring industry as a system rather than isolating a single material — a significant scope shift from CIRCULAR FLOORING.