Eco-Flooring Monday, March 17, 2008 Inside the realm of environmentally friendly materials available to event and exhibit designers, carpeting and flooring has been ahead of the curve for a while now. PET (polyethylene terephthalate)-based carpeting made from recycled soda bottles is commonplace, and suppliers are taking the future of the green movement to heart. Carpet supplier Mohawk Industries’ green arm is called Mohawk GreenWorks, and it recently received the 2007 Evergreen Award from the U.S. General Services Administration for environmental leadership in the commercial carpet arena. Jenny Cross, a senior brand manager at Mohawk, says the green carpet flooring options for designers will only continue to grow moving forward. “I don’t think it’s a trend at all. Green is here to stay and it’s a way of doing business. We’re always looking for something that has an edge environmentally—if it’s green, it’s great,” Cross says. A few areas to keep an eco-friendly eye on in the future: Carpeting. Expect more of the same in the realm of recyclable carpeting options; as more recycling facilities are popping up, the easier it is for suppliers to create green solutions. PETs have been the standby in recyclable carpet, but new options are beginning to surface. “While most carpet products are made from petroleum, DuPont’s Sorona line is made from corn. It’s actually a new yarn system. The way it performs is as good if not better than nylon,” says Brumark president Dave Walens. Carpet tiles are also an eco-friendly option. “It’s a two-by-two interlocking tile of polyethylene foam with a needle punch carpet on top. We’ll be able to take the tile back from our customers, grind it back up and extrude the materials to be able to make more tiles out of, so it truly is a cradle-to-cradle product,” Walens says. Padding. Most padding on the market is already recycled content. All rebond padding repurposes foam mainly from the furniture industry and turns it into padding. Polyurethane pads can also be recycled, and fiber pad is made from recycled fiber content. “We offer three different styles of padding and all are recycled or recyclable, so the options are already out there,” Walens says. Other Options. Recycled rubber flooring made from recycled tires and turned into rolled flooring and tiles is a great and durable green solution. Cork flooring is a recycled material and is available in tiles. Bamboo is a sustainable material that is catching on as a hot green flooring and building material, so the future of green flooring is bright. “You’re seeing products that are more recyclable, and more modular, sustainable, reusable solutions. Alternative materials are becoming more popular,” Walens says. And Mohawk is building its own recycling facilities with the Mohawk GreenWorks Center. “It’s scalable, we can build it in different geographies as soon as it makes sense economically and transportation-wise. We recovering 85 to 90 percent of the materials that we put in, so the facility is pretty cool,” Cross says. Cool and green.
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