Repurposing of our surplus foam

100 tons of foam waste recycled annually

IMG 8002

Recycle – reuse – reduce: the continuous loop of giving foam a purpose

 

March, 2020

100 tons of foam waste recycled annually

For many years, DAFA has been conscious of turning waste into valuable resources, such as transforming our surplus foam to suit new purposes. This means that we conduct business with the environment in mind, and we actively strive to reduce our environmental impact.

As DAFA aspires to become even more sustainable, we have set the goals of 10% waste reduction annually and 50% of our waste is recycled by 2030. Though we are constantly optimizing our processes and solutions to minimize waste, we are also considerate about disposing of our surplus foam responsibly.

As we aim to recycle 50% of our waste by 2030, we have implemented several initiatives and made various collaborations to achieve this goal.

DAFA is particularly proud of its collaboration with Schmitz Foam Products, a Dutch company operating globally with plants in the Netherlands and the United States. Schmitz specializes in repurposing surplus foam and is the world’s biggest recycler of closed-cell cross-linked polyethylene foam (XPE). Furthermore, they are experts in transforming surplus foam into top-performance shock pads for sports, playgrounds, and landscaping.

Schmitz draws upon innovation and sustainable thinking when conducting business, which are some of DAFA’s core values as well. Schmitz recycles DAFA’s surplus XPE foam from our production facility in Denmark and turns it into high-quality shock pads. Annually, 100 tons of our surplus foam is recycled. Therefore, including emissions associated with transportation, we are proud to state that this collaboration annually saves about 212.5 tons of CO2 emissions.

We believe that our partnership with Schmitz is a great example of how sustainability happens in cooperation.

Luuk

 

“Due to our long-term cooperation with DAFA, we prevent high-quality foam from ending up in landfills or incinerators. It is a fruitful cooperation from which both DAFA and we benefit. DAFA gets rid of their production residues in a responsible way, and we can pursue our passion by giving the XPE leftovers a meaningful purpose”.

– Luuk Schmitz, Plant Manager, Schmitz B.V.

Foam grinding machine

Granulation of our XPE surplus foam

XPE foam reuse

Foam granulate

Foam pads Schmitz

Top-performance shock pads made from foam granulate

Sustainability goal

DAFA is conscious of turning waste into valuable resources, and we aim for 50% of our waste to be recycled by 2030.

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Reuse of waste

You can read more about all our sustainability goals here...