Shaw to build new carpet recycling plant in Georgia

Shaw Industries Group Inc., has announced plans to open a new carpet recycling facility in Ringgold, Georgia. The floor covering firm, headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, is expected to spend around $17 million to open the new facility, which previously was a Shaw rug distribution facility. The Evergreen facility, when fully operational, is expected to add at least 70 new full time jobs.

“The development of Evergreen Ringgold is the latest example of Shaw’s sustainable business strategy at work,” says Vance Bell, Shaw’s chairman and CEO. “This addition to our recycling portfolio reflects our continued efforts to drive innovation into the business and to protect and make efficient use of resources while focusing on long-term financial success.”

Shaw says that it has recycled more than 700 million pounds of carpet since 2006 through its take-back program and its growing reclamation network. The company adds that Evergreen Ringgold is an addition to its portfolio of recycling solutions, allowing Shaw to recycle nylon and polyester carpet.

Shaw says that its investment in recycling technologies demonstrates its commitment to recycled products: a certification program called Cradle to Cradle. As Shaw’s portfolio of recycle investments expands, so does its Cradle-to-Cradle certified products. Sixty-four percent of the products the company sells are Cradle-to-Cradle certified, and Shaw has committed 100 percent of its products to being designed according to Cradle-to-Cradle protocol by 2030.

The company says that Evergreen Ringgold will create a high-purity, post-consumer recycled material that can be used in a range of applications.

“Evergreen Ringgold expands our efforts to keep end-of-use carpet out of landfills,” says Paul Murray, Shaw vice president of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs. “By expanding our recycling portfolio, we are illustrating our continued commitment to converting something that historically may have been seen as waste into a resource that has a longer life in the economy.”

Through Shaw’s Evergreen process older carpets are able to be reclaimed and converted back into carpet, to be used as an active ingredient for other manufacturers’ products such as automotive parts and converted into energy.