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If you need new carpeting in your home, you might want to look into some of the great eco-friendly carpets on the market today.
Better Homes & Gardens produced a nice write-up on some of their editors’ picks of recycled carpets available and I thought it would be great to share what they had to say.
Recycled carpet is no longer the ugly step-child of the industry. It’s stylish, durable, easy to clean, comparable in price to virgin fiber carpet, and it’s Earth-friendly. Shaw carpets alone will keep over 100 million pounds of old carpets out of the landfill with their Anso nylon carpets.
There are a couple of different major manufacturers that were recently featured in the BH&G article that deserve mention.
Shaw Eco-Friendly Carpet Lines
Shaw carpets has quite a few recycled carpet products. They have 2 great eco-friendly carpets:
- Anso Nylon 6 line of carpets – contain recycled contents and are recyclable.
- Anything Goes line of carpets – manufactured with the cradle-to-cradle technology, meaning that the carpet material can be endlessly recycled back into the same product — over and over again.
Here is a video showcasing their cradle-to-cradle methodology.
That’s good stuff!
Look for these eco-friendly Shaw carpet lines:
- Antoinette
- Inspired Spaces
- Endurance II
- Simply The Best
- Timeless Home
Learn more about Shaw’s post-consumer carpet recycling and collection process.
FLOR Eco-Friendly Carpet Lines
FLOR is another carpet manufacturer that is knee-deep in the business of being a good recycler.
They primarily manufacture carpet squares, and they have devised a very slick carpet recycling program for its customers that wish to participate.
FLOR’s recycling program is dubbed the Return & Recycle Program. The carpet tiles that you return must be FLOR carpet squares, but that’s okay, it’s free of charge. You contact them, they send prepaid UPS labels to you, and then they are on their way.
Most of the products that FLOR offers meets or exceeds the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Green Label Plus standards.
In a nutshell, the Institute’s website manifesto states:
- Green Label and Green Label Plus ensure that customers are purchasing among the lowest emitting carpet, adhesive and cushion products on the market.
- CRI designed the Green Label and Green Label Plus programs for architects, builders, specifiers and facility mangers who want assurances that carpet and adhesive products meet the most stringent criteria for low chemical emissions.
- Green Label Plus represents the fourth time the carpet industry has voluntarily enhanced the IAQ standard for its products.
Have you ever heard of Mission Zero?
FLOR is a division of Interface, Inc. and they are committed to not having any negative impact on our environment by the year 2020, per the Mission Zero mission statement. You have to appreciate a company taking an initiative like that.
Look for these FLOR eco-friendly products:
- House Pet Series
- Fedora
- Classic Quilt
- Modern Mix
Company C Eco-Friendly Carpet Lines
Company C manufactures 100% natural wool rugs for their Natural Grounds line.
Company C…
“…joined Rugmark, a nonprofit organization that campaigns against child labor and poor working conditions in rug factories. A percentage of every Rugmark-certified rug sold goes to educating and rehabilitating children in Nepal, Pakistan, and India.”
Look for these collections in their Natural Grounds line:
- Sachi Black Bean
- Wentworth Floral
- Marisol Sand
Earth Weave Eco-Friendly Carpet Lines
BH&G gave props to one other carpet manufacturer: Earth Weave.
They have the Bio-Floor collection.
Their rugs are 100% biodegradable with 100% natural rubber backing and 100% natural wool fibers. Their rugs are also non-toxic.
As stated on their website:
“Our products are made using undyed, untreated wool on the face, along with hemp, cotton, jute and natural rubber for the backing materials.”
I hope you will take the time to check into eco-friendly flooring and recycled carpet products when you are ready for some new flooring.
I started as a home-stalker… visiting brand new homes under construction in the neighborhoods near my house. That inspired me to write about home building and home renovation projects — chronicling homes during different phases of construction from a consumer's point-of-view. Basically, the tips you'll find in my articles are a collection of checklists for what I think should (and should not) go into building or remodeling a quality home.
