By Louis Iannaco
As the world has become more environmentally responsible in recent years, carpet mills have followed suit. Whether it’s through products they’ve developed or initiatives and programs they’ve launched, broadloom producers have been putting increased focus on making sure the footprint they leave on the environment’s landscape will be as small as possible.

Mohawk Industries

At Mohawk, when environmental responsibility is the aim, Greenworks is the name. This program puts all the mill’s environmental projects under a single umbrella, making it easier for the company to showcase, communicate and discuss the message.

Frank Endrenyi, Mohawk’s vice president of sustainable development, said Greenworks was developed as a vehicle to allow consumers, dealers, employees and others better understand the full scope of Mohawk’s environmental efforts.

“It’s easy to say you’re green,” he explained. “It’s a lot more difficult to actually be green. Greenworks is an umbrella program designed to help people understand how much effort goes into this process and how it impacts every level of our company.”

Greenworks not only covers the spectrum of environmental practices—“the 5 Rs” as Endrenyi says: recycle, renew, reuse, recover and reduce—it is a platform that gives Mohawk a single voice for communicating its myriad of environmental programs globally as well as allowing the company to get feedback directly from end users.

This is key, he explained, as the environment and how companies interact with it is becoming increasingly important to the general public. How much so? “In 2004, 21% [of U.S. voters] said they voted for candidates in part based on their environmental records.”

One of Mohawk’s biggest green projects has been its Greenworks Recycling Center in Chatsworth, Ga. The center reclaims all major types of synthetic fiber—nylon 6, nylon 6,6, and polypropylene—that make up 90% of the carpet industry’s waste stream, helping to reduce the industry’s environmental footprint while increasing carpet’s recovery rate. In fact, at 90%, GreenWorks Center has the highest recovery rate in the industry, nearly three times that of its closest competitor.

Regardless of manufacturer, yardage or yarn system, the center works with the C.A.R.E. (Carpet America Recovery Effort) initiative and Mohawk’s own ReCover reclamation program to reclaim broadloom.

Shaw Industries

In 2006, Shaw introduced the Shaw Green Edge. The Shaw Green Edge is an environmental program made up of over 100 initiatives. Today, it is evolving to include more than just simple environmental metrics. “Shaw has identified several fundamental elements of environmental stewardship on which we believe our industry, and many others, should focus,” said John Bradshaw, Shaw’s environmental marketing manager.

The following are basic pillars that support Shaw’s comprehensive environmental program: 1) energy 2) water 3)emissions/indoor air quality (IAQ) 4) recycling and reclamation 5) social/community responsibility and 6) environmentally friendly products.

“The term ‘cradle to grave’ describes the process by which consumer products are conventionally manufactured,” Bradshaw said. “We take raw materials from the earth, make products and eventually send those products to overflowing landfills.”

Cradle-to-cradle production means that products can be collected and returned to manufacturing of the original product again and again. This is Shaw’s goal, and the company is well on the path toward achieving it.

Shaw’s 2005 purchase of the Anso nylon brand and the Evergreen Nylon Recycling plant from Honeywell International is helping Shaw realize its goal of cradle-to-cradle production.

“Shaw is committed to investing in technologies that move us to a cradle-to-cradle future,” he explained, “such as our Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility that recycles post-consumer nylon 6 carpets back into the raw material to make new carpet. Just as natural products can be returned to the earth for decomposition to make fertilizers in a cycle of renewal, cradle-to-cradle manufacturing mimics this process.” The company believes cradle-to-cradle is the path to true sustainability.

Evergreen Nylon Recycling in Augusta, Ga., employs patented technology that converts post-consumer nylon carpet and recycles it back to its original material—the building block for nylon fiber. “As a result of this technology,” Bradshaw noted, “carpets of nylon 6 are capable of being recycled into new carpet repeatedly without the loss of any aesthetic or performance properties. It is a true ‘carpet to carpet’ process.”

Evergreen is part of a system of efficient post-consumer carpet collection, recycling and value recovery on a large scale. “The collection system is expected to recycle more than 100 million pounds of nylon 6 carpet annually,” Bradshaw said.

Partnering with a number of recycling companies, Shaw has established this collection network to bring post-consumer carpets to Evergreen for recycling. Currently, the collection system is operational in over 50 locations throughout the country, and the mill continues adding areas to its network every day.

Beaulieu of America

Among its environmental initiatives, Beaulieu manufactures its polyester (PET) fiber by recycling plastic bottles through its Earthguard Fiber Technology to produce earth-friendly carpets. The mill has an internal recycling program committed to the reduction of waste with an overall emphasis on landfill-use reduction. It converts PET (plastic) bottles to carpet fiber and markets residential carpet made with 100 percent recycled PET recovered from the bottles.

Within the last year, Beaulieu’s Royston plant received the Plant of the Year Award from the Georgia Association of Water Professionals. The award distinguishes a Georgia business that exemplifies environmental stewardship in the areas of pollution prevention management systems, procurement of materials, processing of materials, conservation of natural resources and energy, reuse/recycle and final product management. The Royston plant manufactures polyester carpet yarn from fiber derived from plastic soft drink bottles.

A more recent environmental program initiated by Beaulieu at Surfaces 2008 is its Healthy Home, a carpet designed to be “the safe and healthy alternative” to other soft floor coverings. One of Healthy Home’s features, Silver Release, is an antimicrobial technology that uses silver and copper ions—elements found in nature—that have been proven effective in reducing bacteria and inhibiting the growth of mold, mildew and fungus.

Tandus

The commercial flooring producer recently launched Retrieve, a program to recover physical product samples and sample folders from the marketplace. Developed in collaboration with the Carolinas Chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Retrieve guarantees specifiers that 100% of the samples and folders they return will be recycled or reused.

“Not only does Retrieve enable Tandus to manufacture fewer samples and folders in the long term, but we are able to engage our customers in our effort to make a positive impact on the environment,” said Lee Schilling, senior vice president. “By reclaiming our old carpet and unused samples and folders, we are mining buildings for resources instead of mining the earth.”

Retrieve is an extension to the company’s FLOORE carpet buy-back program, in place since the early 1990s. Since initiating this program, Tandus has reclaimed millions of pounds of vinyl-backed carpets from the marketplace. This material is closed-loop recycled into ER3, a 100% recycled content backing for its C&A brand products.

Since 1997, Tandus has recycled more than 110 million pounds of waste carpet and vinyl. How Retrieve works: Unused physical product samples and sample folders can be returned to Tandus simply by calling customer service at 800.248.2878. The company will provide packaging and shipping labels.

Retrieve is designed to accept all product samples and folders from its own brands– Monterey, Crossley and C&A— as well as competitors’ vinylbacked carpet samples as well. Product folders will be returned to Tandus showrooms for reuse while product samples will either be re-shelved or recycled.

“Instead of adding to the four billion pounds of carpet that is dumped into landfills each year, companies can now be environmentally responsible by participating in our Retrieve and FLOORE programs,” Schilling said.

“Over the last seven months of 2007, our Retrieve program has enabled us to manufacture fewer samples and folders while encouraging our customers to make a positive impact on the environment. And to say the program has been a success would be an understatement. Since last June, our Retrieve numbers have continued to increase, emphasizing the success a commitment to sustainability can achieve through hard work and a dedicated team.”

All of the Tandus running-line tile products with ER3 and ER3 cushion backings are NSF-140 certified Platinum. “Aside from our sustainable products and recycling program, we have been using 100% biodiesel, a renewable energy source, to replace diesel fuel used in its commercial boilers,” Schilling said. “By recycling waste vegetable oil and grease from local restaurants, we are able to use a waste stream normally destined for the landfill as a fuel for manufacturing. Because biodiesel in not petroleum based, it reduces dependence on foreign oil supplies, is biodegradable, safe to handle and reduces air toxins, particulates and greenhouse gas emissions.”

In addition to that, the mill is also in the process of implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS), which involves the maintenance of regulatory compliance and the measurement and reporting of environmental metrics with a continual focus on reductions. “This program will require involvement from every plant, every department and every employee.”