Shaw Carpet Renounces PVC
by TreeHugger on 12.16.04
You may think of carpet as a cozy, harmless floorcovering, or you may not think about it all. But carpets can contain lots of nasty components, like icky glues, naughty fibers, and PVC backing. Now Shaw Carpet, a major player in the market, is taking some of that ugliness out of its program. As of December 8, the manufacturer has removed PVC from the list of ingredients in its Commercial Business Unit and replacing it with EcoWorx, a cradle-to-cradle sustainable product that can be infinitely recycled. And since the material is 40 percent lighter than comparable products, it reduces emissions and transportation costs, is easier to install and requires less packaging...
Shaw's new manufacturing equipment is also designed to increase capacity and decrease energy consumption, while additional recycling capacity is being added to its factories. That’s great news for working toward a healthier environment—both indoors and out—since PVC can off-gas harmful chemicals and lasts virtually forever in landfills when it hits the end of its lifecycle.
Furthermore, to encourage recycling and ensure that precious materials return to the facility where they can be reused, Shaw offers an environmental guarantee on its EcoWorx products. The company will physically retrieve floorcoverings featuring EcoWorx at the end of their life cycles free of charge. The benefit to the customer—not having to deal with the disposal of the floorcovering—is also a boon to the manufacturer— as large volumes of post-consumer tile flow back, Shaw gains raw materials for making new products. Considering that the Dalton, Georgia-headquartered company manufactures more than 600 million square yards of floorcovering annually, it’s also a boon to the environment. Via Interior Design ::Shaw [by MO]
What is Shaw going to do with the millions of yards of PVC backed carpet they have already sold into the marketplace? Put it in a landfill?
The question should be, "What are the other manufactures going to do with the PVC backings they will continue to manufature and sell?" At least Shaw is making a statement and doing something positive from this point on. PRO