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INTERFACE CELEBRATES 10 YEARS AND NEARLY 60 MILLION POUNDS OF RECLAIMED CARPET |
ReEntry is Industry's Most Aggressive, Responsible and Successful Reclamation Program |
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Oct. 25 -/E-Wire/--
(LaGrange, Ga.) "Harvesting yester year's carpets and other petro-chemically derived products, and recycling them into new products …" It was part of Ray Anderson's first speeches in 1994 about his company's then-new journey to sustainability, and that early vision is proving valid as Interface stakes its claim today with one of the most aggressive and responsible carpet reclamation programs and an announcement that nearly 60 million pounds of carpet has been reclaimed since 1995 through ReEntry®.
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"Rather than abandon over 30 years and 250 million pounds of vinyl backing already in the marketplace, Interface has made a commitment to recycle carpet backing," said John Wells, president of Interface Flooring Systems. "Year over year growth of our ReEntry program validates that carpet recycling is not only the right thing to do, but something that the marketplace is demanding as well. It is good business."
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ReEntry, Interface's carpet reclamation program, tracks carpet collected from sites across the U.S. As of June 2004, the program has reclaimed 57 million pounds of carpet, of which: 52% has been recycled as GlasBac®RE, the Interface recycled vinyl backing system. Of the carpet that has been recycled. 40% has been used for energy capture and conversion, or converted from waste to energy.. While not as preferable as pure recycling, this process keeps the product out of the landfill. 8% has been repurposed, having been removed before the end of its useful life, carpet is donated to a nonprofit organization.
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Addressing concerns about vinyl, Wells stresses that Interface has made a commitment to exit all virgin petro-chemically derived materials in its processes. "Science shows us that when vinyl is used as intended, it has no negative health effects," explains Wells. "Reclaiming it helps us begin to close the loop and acknowledges that there is a bounty of vinyl-backed carpet out there for which someone must take responsibility. Interface has committed to exit all virgin petro-chemically derived materials (not just vinyl). Any material that relies on virgin petrochemicals has an inherently negative impact on the environment."
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Atlanta-based Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ: IFSIA), celebrates 10 years of "Sustainability in Action" in 2004 and is a global leader in the manufacture of environmentally-responsible floorcoverings and other textiles, through business units including Bentley Prince Street, Interface Fabrics, Interface Flooring Systems, InterfaceFLOR, Interface Europe and Interface Asia-Pacific. The company is committed to giving the marketplace a wide range of choices for specifying Earth-friendly and certified environmentally preferable products. Interface also introduced the industry's first climate neutral carpet, Cool Carpet™, as well as the only carpet product to be designed using biomimicry, the i2™ collection from Interface Flooring Systems. The company introduced a residential carpet product (InterfaceFLOR) created from the bio-based, plant-derived fiber, Ingeo™. Interface Fabrics offers the Terratex® brand of commercial fabrics, the first to be made of 100% post consumer and post industrial polyester and wool; now also available with bio-based fibers.
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For more information on Interface's environmental initiatives, visit www.interfacesustainability.com.
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