Flooring manufacturer Shaw Industries Group has received the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) Recycler of the Year award for the third consecutive year. The honor recognizes Shaw’s recycling efforts, such as the Evergreen Nylon Recycling program, which converts nylon 6 fiber from post-consumer carpet back into the raw material to make new carpet fiber. Since Shaw opened up the Evergreen plant in 2007, the company has recycled more than 220 million pounds of post-consumer nylon 6 carpet and more than 36 million pounds of post-consumer carpet filler. In addition, the manufacturer began construction of Re2E (Reclaim to Energy) last year, a carpet-fueled co-generation facility in Dalton, Georgia, that will consume 76 million pounds of post-consumer and post-industrial carpet annually and will generate electricity and steam power for one of the company’s carpet mills.
In addition, Shaw has launched Eco Impacts, an environmental product label for the company’s commercially branded carpet tile and broadloom offerings. The label’s categories include:
- Total recycled content
- Post-consumer recycled content
- Pre-consumer recycled content
- Recyclability and how to recycle the product
- Ingredient materials
- Fiber type
- Dye methods
- Backing type
- Packaging materials
- Environmental product certifications
"The Eco Impacts label is another significant step towards setting a new standard for the transparency and labeling of environmental impacts for products, processes and, ultimately, whole organizations within the flooring industry and beyond," says Rick Ramirez, Shaw vice president of sustainability.
