Recycling
The Circular Economy Beneath Your Feet
We’re innovators. We’re always looking for new and better ways to efficiently use resources and reach our environmental goals. We’ve redesigned our products and processes to allow more bio-based and recycled content, making it easier to disassemble and reuse materials. It’s thanks to our ReEntry™ program that we can recycle on this scale in the Americas, and our goal is to do it globally.
But recycling is more than turning old flooring into new flooring. Through partnerships with vendors and global communities we’re also fostering a circular economy. Residents in poverty-stricken areas exchange materials (discarded nylon fishing nets) or services (weaving) for an additional source of income. Those nets become face fibre in our carpet tiles and the weavers’ creations generate donations for charity. Everybody wins.
Where Old Becomes New
First, we cleanly separate the face from the backing of carpet tiles, Then, we use that carpet backing along with our Luxury Vinyl Tile as food for our Cool BlueMC manufacturing process. We find other streams of use for the face fibres so nothing goes to waste.
The result is our high performance recycled content backing – GlasBacREMC – with 98% recycled or bio-based content.
Changing the Face of Industry
Net-Works helps residents in impoverished fishing villages in the Philippines and Cameroon to collect, process and sell discarded fishing nets (a threat to marine life) back into a global supply chain.
This benefits local communities and opens up new sources of recycled nylon for us to use in our manufacturing. The result: Those destructive, broken nets gain a second life as beautiful, long-lasting carpet tile.
Weaving a Better Life
Since the program began in 2013 over 115,000 kg (253,531 lbs.) of yarn has been diverted, which is about the weight of 16 elephants.
