King County Environmental Purchasing Program

Procurement Bulletin #23: Carpet and Carpet Recycling

• Introduction
• New Environmental Initiatives in the Carpet Industry
• Vendor Information
• For More Information
• Environmental Purchasing Program

Introduction

According to Environmental Building News (1/98), approximately four billion pounds of old carpeting are landfilled each year. Major carpet manufacturers are reacting to increasing landfill costs and regulation and are beginning to see a market-advantage in improving the environmental impacts of their operations. These improvements have ranged from refurbishing used carpet to making new products from the old carpet, such as carpet fiber, carpet-backing, auto-parts and flooring material.

One of the many initiatives of the industry has been to incorporate carpet-recycling into their replacement operations. Increasingly, they are able to furnish their clients with information about the amount of carpet diverted from the landfill-bound solid-waste stream to recycling. According to estimates by the County's main contractor for flooring (DuPont Flooring Systems), they have recycled 13,000 lbs of carpet for King County this year, through their DuPont Carpet Reclamation program.

In addition, King County Records and Elections recently purchased 635 sq. yds of Collins & Aikman carpet with recycled-content backing. (Purchased through the State flooring contract from DuPont Flooring Systems)

New Environmental Initiatives in the Carpet Industry

Following are some examples of what the carpet manufacturers are doing in their operations that significantly impacts the waste stream.

Milliken	refurbishes modular carpet
Dupont	recycles old carpet into building materials and auto parts
Collins & Aikman	recycles old carpet to make carpet-backing
Shaw	recycles old carpet and supplies recycled content carpet
Interface	low-impact production methods; introducing more natural fibers
BASF	recycles old carpet
Image	uses recycled PET in carpet fiber

Milliken

Earth Square is Milliken's patented name for it's renewal process for used modular carpet. They will take your old carpet tiles, then clean, rejuvenate, restyle - and reinstall with a new pattern and a new warranty. All at about half the cost of new.

 

DuPont Flooring

Whenever DuPont Flooring Systems removes and replaces commercial carpet, the old carpet, regardless of manufacturer, fiber type or construction, is recycled. This reclamation program has, to date, diverted approximately 30 million pounds of used commercial carpet from the waste stream in North America. The DuPont Carpet Reclamation Program processes the used carpet into raw materials for a variety of uses such as automobile parts, sod reinforcements, soundproofing and industrial flooring. DuPont has teamed up with Collins & Aikman and installs their recycled content backing carpet.

New Product: SelecTech, a company in Taunton, MA, is making a new heavy-duty flooring product from used carpet recycled by the DuPont Carpet Reclamation Program. Called "RepTile," this is an industrial-strength floor tile, containing 50% post-consumer recycled carpet. The product is available from the company, or locally from DuPont Flooring Systems.

 

Collins & Aikman

This company recycles used carpet into carstops, industrial flooring and carpet backing. Their ER3 carpet backing is made with 75% recycled-content.

 

Shaw

They current collect used carpet and are developing the capacity to collect and recycle 250 million pounds of used carpet yearly. This carpet is being recycled into a growing number of alternative products, including carpet underlayment, new carpet, marine building materials, industrial felt, and plastic car parts. They have recently introduced a post-consumer recycled content carpet. The recycled content fibers are called Eco Solution Q.

 

Interface

Interface has a carpet leasing program and is working on implementing their ideas for less impact on the environment. They are looking at closing the loop, generating less waste and using natural fibers.

 

BASF

BASF has expanded their recycling system to take back other carpet besides their own. Since 1994, they have marked their new carpet for take-back when that carpet is replaced.

 

Image Industries

Image, is the only company listed here that manufactures a PET (plastic) carpet, as opposed to nylon. Image recycled PET containers into flake, which is then extruded into polyester fiber. This fiber is used in the production of new carpet.

Vendors

The following list contains the names of vendors whose environmentally preferable carpet products or practices have come to our attention. This listing of vendors should not be considered an endorsement by the County. Also, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list, merely a starting-place, and we encourage you to provide us with contact information for other vendors of environmentally preferable carpet and other materials.

DuPont Flooring Systems
Contact: Tory Munson, Account Manager
11521 E. Marginal Way S, Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98168
(206)241-0229 phone
(206)241-2699 fax

Manufacturer of RepTile Flooring Tile:
SelecTech
Taunton, MA
(877)738-4537
available locally through DuPont Flooring Systems (above)

 

Shaw Contract Group
Contact: Fred Beggs, Regional Manager
22404 NE 28 St.
Redmond, WA 98053
(206)836-8446 phone
(206)836-8325 fax
 

Milliken & Company
920 Milliken Rd.
Spartanburg, SC 29303-9301
(864)503-2020 phone
(864)503-2100 fax

Earth Square: (877) E2-RENEW (toll free); E-mail: e2@milliken.com

 

Collins & Aikman Corporation
701 McCullough Dr.
Charlotte, NC 28262
(704)547-8500 phone

 

Interface, Inc
1130 West Avenue
Cartersville, Georgia 30120
(800)336-0225 phone

 

BASF Corporation
3000 Continental Drive - North
Mount Olive, NJ 07828
(800) 669-2273 phone
(973) 426-2610 fax

 

Image Carpets
PO Box 5555
Armuchee, GA 30105
800/722-2504 phone
706/234-3463 fax

For More Information

Please contact the above vendors for more information about their products and recycling activities. Additional references are welcomed.

Environmental Purchasing Program

The King County Environmental Purchasing Program assists County agencies in implementation of King County Executive Policy CON-7-1-2, which requires agencies to use recycled and other environmentally preferable products "wherever practicable."

The program assembles information about these products and makes it available to specific agency users who can evaluate them and attempt to develop applications in County projects.

These procurement bulletins contain information about the results of product evaluations and other accomplishments of County agencies. We hope this information will help you find ways to use recycled materials in the work of your agency and that you will contact us if we can help you with further information or if you have suggestions.

Environmental Purchasing Program

King County Procurement & Contract Services

E-mail

Published: November 10, 1998