Dalton— Mohawk Industries has literally hundreds of environmentally oriented projects in the works at any given time—from cutting emissions at plants, to converting 25% of all the soft drink bottles in the U.S. into carpet fiber.

To help others better understand the full scope of its environmental efforts, the company has launched Greenworks, an umbrella program for all its green projects.

“It’s easy to say you’re green, it’s a lot more difficult to actually be green,” noted Frank Endrenyi, Mohawk’s vice president of sustainable development. “Greenworks is designed to help people understand how much effort goes into this process and how it impacts every level of our company.”

Greenworks covers the spectrum of environmental practices, “the 5 Rs—recycle, renew, reuse, recover and reduce.” He noted Mohawk leads the industry in many environmental efforts, and has been cited by government agencies as a pioneer for other industries to follow.

“Mohawk is the largest recycler in the industry,” Endrenyi said. “We currently divert more than three billion pounds of waste from landfills—including old tires, roofing materials, old wood furniture, soft drink bottles, carpet and others sources. More than 500 Mohawk products—carpet, carpet tiles, cushion, laminates and ceramic tile—contain recycled materials.”

One key new element in Mohawk recycling is the Greenworks recycling center for post-consumer carpet. Endrenyi said the center “uses patent pending technology to process 100% of the carpet fiber, backing, and latex” and recover approximately 90% of all materials for reuse. “Our facility is also portable and can be scaled for the amount of material that needs to be processed. It can also process certain thermoplastic non-carpet recyclables.”

Endrenyi said the Greenworks Center is now open in Chatsworth, Ga., but other locations can be built. Because it can be built anywhere, recyclers can keep costs down by being close to a Greenworks processing center.