Ruminations

To those of you looking to change the commercial carpeting in your place of business while seeking to reduce the environmental impact of that purchase, I have the following recommendation: Shaw Industries, one of the largest carpet manufacturers in the world, has a program which markets product under the "Shaw Green Edge" label. Seek this label, and under that label ask to see carpet tile (as opposed to carpet broadloom) making sure that the word "Eco-Worx" is tied to that carpet tile. This product has the following distinction: typically 25% of the carpet fiber in the product is reharvested from old carpet that would otherwise have ended up in landfills, the tile backing is made from non-PVC (i.e. less toxic) fiber-glass reinforced material that is fully recyclable, AND the manufacturer has a progam where at the end of the carpet tile's life cycle they will collect (free of charge, subject to a minimum of 500 square yards of used carpet tile being made available for them to collect) the old carpet tile and ship it back to their manufacturing facility to be recycled into new carpet and carpet tile. When one is informed that over 4.5 billion pounds of old carpet ends up in landfills every year, thinking and acting "green" means thinking and acting responsibly.

As an aside, my company carries and offers Shaw Green Edge carpet tile product with the Eco-Worx designation, and we can arrange to have the product made available for will-call for potential clients at the manufacturer's warehouse facilities in most major metropolitan markets. For those interested you can contact:

Hamid Boroumand. Vice President. Landmark Improvement Resources Group. 11602 Knott Street, #11. Garden Grove, CA 92841. Tel: 714-799-7450.