Backing Carpet into a Corner: Moving from Promises to Reality

InterfaceFLOR is making strides towards decreasing our need for virgin raw materials and increasing our product’s post-consumer content for our customers, all while reducing our overall environmental footprint.

For many people, recycling conjures up blue plastic bins and bottle drives. But recycling is a design principal, a law of nature, a source of creativity and innovation. Just a few years ago the word recycled carpet tile was looked at with cynicism. InterfaceFLOR decided to back carpet tile into a corner by working towards closing the loop on carpet backing. Since 1994, Interface has reclaimed more than 178 million pounds of carpet, and we anticipate reclaiming over 40 million pounds in 2009. All InterfaceFLOR and competitors’ vinyl backed carpet (commercial and residential, broadloom and tile), regardless of the face fiber used, can be recycled. Through patented technology, InterfaceFLOR cleanly separates the face fiber and backing of nearly any carpet type. Separated GlasBac® backing and similar competitor backings are recycled into new GlasBacRE backing using our Cool Blue™ backing technology. As part of InterfaceFLOR’s Mission Zero™ commitment to eliminate its environmental impact by 2020, it was critical that the process we created and implemented made good sense environmentally as well as economically. To that end, our carpet reclamation and recycling process (we call it ReEntry® 2.0) has lower embodied energy use than other recycling systems in use in the carpet industry today. Furthermore, not only will ReEntry 2.0 keep more carpet out of landfills, it will provide a steady stream of post-consumer recycled materials across the industry, essentially putting a value on what was formerly viewed as a waste product. As we continue to support the vision of the radical industrialist, our commitment to cyclical processes will help us to continue on our mission to zero.

George Bandy Jr.

Vice President of Sustainability/Diversity Strategy