The Benefits of Dematerialization - Aug/Sep 2008

By Darius Helm

Dematerialization is a long word for a very simple concept that lies at the core of any successful manufacturing model, green or otherwise: using less material. These days, with skyrocketing material and energy costs, the concept is more important than ever. It’s a way of lowering costs and strengthening profits, and along the way it’s also one of the most fundamental sustainability strategies. 

Not only does dematerialization mean reduced use of raw materials, but it also translates to reduced energy use in production, reduced transportation costs, reduced water use, reduced industrial waste and reduced landfilling. It’s one of those bottom line issues. If a manufacturer dematerializes its products, most elements contributing to the firm’s overall environmental footprint are also reduced.

The challenge for flooring producers is to dematerialize without reducing the performance of products, and that’s easier in some flooring categories than in others. For example, it’s a particularly tough challenge for vinyl flooring, where ASTM specs like thickness and weight make it particularly difficult to reduce material content. 

DEMATERIALIZING CARPET
Producers have had the most success with carpet tile, since it has such a hefty back. It’s also easier to reduce face weights of carpet tile compared to broadloom face weights, since the thinner broadloom backing cannot play as big a role in the product’s performance as it can in carpet tile. While backings only account for perhaps 30% of the total weight of broadloom, it’s closer to 60% for carpet tile. Over the last few years, most carpet manufacturers have reduced the weight of their products, both in face weights and backings.

Over the last ten years, the average weight of InterfaceFlor’s carpet tile has dropped 14%, from 145 ounces to 125 ounces per square yard. The firm has also dematerialized on the adhesive side with TacTiles, the 3”x3” polyester cards that attach carpet tiles to each other, obviating the need for gallons of adhesive for the average installation. TacTiles save about 100 grams of material per square yard of installed carpet tile. Nearly 40% of all InterfaceFlor carpet sales now use TacTiles, and with the firm producing about 50 million square yards of carpet a year, that’s a dematerialization rate of about 4.4 million pounds of adhesive a year. 

Shaw’s EcoWorx carpet tiles, now in their tenth year of production, replaced PVC backings with an olefin system, which, according to the firm, reduced the backing weight by 30% to 40%. The system also performs better than the old PVC backings, with claims down by a factor of three. 

Tandus came out with a PVC carpet backing last year called Conserv that uses 25% less material. And according to Milliken, the weight of its carpet tile has been reduced by an average of 40% over the last decade, from 180 ounces to about 110, while broadloom weights are down about 20%, going from 50 ounces to 40 ounces—and performance has gone up. J&J Industries is another firm actively dematerializing its products, with the bigger impact on its carpet tile lines.

REDUCING CARPET SAMPLES
Another major front for dematerialization is in the sample side of the business. Traditionally, commercial carpet samples both from architectural folders and in strike-offs for specifiers have used considerable resources, in the neighborhood of ten to 20 million pounds of face fiber and backing every year. Now, most carpet mills have come up with programs to reduce that volume.

Most of the green carpet sample programs are based on reclamation. For instance, J&J Industries pays the postage for clients to return any and all samples and architect folders, which numbered over 26,000 items last year. Tandus’ Retrieve program also brings back samples and architectural folders. However, the biggest strides have been made in replacing sample swatches with color accurate digital images, and the leader in this field is Chattanooga, Tennessee based Tricycle.

Tricycle uses a proprietary process to create representations of products that meet the stringent demands of specifiers, and the six year old firm now works with nine of the ten biggest carpet mills. The innovative firm creates its Tryk images through a complex process that uses digital representations of yarn, dyes, manufacturing equipment and patterns from designers in order to build a product image that is the most accurate in the industry. The process is so comprehensive that it is also used as a development tool to create images of products that have never even been manufactured.

Products can be reproduced as flat samples or in room scenes, as well as in architectural folders. One of the fastest growing parts of Tricycle’s business involves using photos of room scenes provided by clients of carpet customers and inserting into them running line and custom products, which hugely simplifies and streamlines the design process for specifiers.

Tryk images are only part of Tricycle’s carpet industry program. The firm also offers a range of online tools that serve the decision making process, including product presentations, showroom redesigns, and branding tools—anything related to getting product promoted and sold. A comprehensive platform enables the firm to constantly update its offerings for all its clients.

According to Tricycle, since 2003, the firm has prevented 306,000 pounds of carpet from going to landfills, saved 51,000 gallons of oil and created a positive economic effect of over $42 million.

BEYOND DEMATERIALIZATION
Dematerialization is just one element of resource reduction, which includes energy and water reduction. Its environmental impact has many elements in common with energy reduction, since fossil fuels are the raw material for the majority of dematerialized carpet. 

Once manufacturers have dematerialized their products as much as they can while maintaining the performance and aesthetic attributes, recycling and reclamation take over. The use of virgin materials is further reduced by capturing and reusing a range of recycled materials for backings and face fibers. Several carpet manufacturers that have combined both approaches now offer products using less than 50% of the virgin materials they used a decade ago, a number that will continue to drop as recycling techniques are perfected and product performance is enhanced.

Copyright 2008 Floor Focus 

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.