Evergreen Plant Up and Running

Augusta, GA, April 16, 2007--After a six-year hiatus, carpet is being recycled in east Augusta again. "It has been running extremely well," said George Davies, marketing manager for Shaw Industries Inc., which restarted the Evergreen Nylon Recycling plant on Columbia Nitrogen Road in February, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Honeywell and DSM Chemicals shut down the plant in 2001. Shaw Industries, a Dalton, Ga., flooring company, acquired the facility last year.

Now 100 workers are transforming millions of pounds of discarded carpet into caprolactam, a raw material used to make nylon carpet fibers.

Mr. Davies said Shaw is the only carpet manufacturer to take old carpet and turn it into new carpet.

The Augusta facility will be able to process 100 million pounds of old carpet annually.

Steve Bradfield, Shaw's director of environmental affairs, said the company will use all the output from Augusta to feed its carpetmaking facilities. He said that should make the Evergreen facility more economically secure this time.

"We're not on the market trying to sell caprolactam to merchants," Mr. Bradfield said. "We're using all of this material internally at Shaw."

Mr. Bradfield said the Augusta facility is "on the right trajectory in meeting economic goals," a point where the recycled caprolactam and newly made compound cost the same.

"It is a complex chemical facility. To be running above our expectations and running quality caprolactam is a plus," Mr. Bradfield said.

He said the company won't reveal how much was spent to get the facility running. Despite efforts by DSM Chemicals and Honeywell to mothball the plant in 2001, there was still equipment that needed replacing, Mr. Bradfield said.

"We made some design changes that DSM identified before the plant shut down," Mr. Bradfield said.

He said there were also some technology improvements made before Evergreen restarted.

Mr. Bradfield said the design changes were aimed at improving efficiency.

"You want to get as good a separation of the nylon from the backing as you can," Mr. Bradfield said.

The amount of material entering the reactor was also sped up.

Mr. Bradfield said the facility is now running ahead of its production schedule.

DSM Chemicals is operating the plant for Shaw. Augusta-based RBW Logistics operates the warehouse. Augusta Service Co. is in charge of maintenance.

Mr. Bradfield said there were millions of pounds of carpet stockpiled at Evergreen in anticipation of the restart.

Shaw has a carpet-recycling-collection system in place across the country. Mr. Bradfield said Shaw is paying per pound for the used carpet.

"We knew we would have to give value for the effort," he said. "Everybody is collecting like crazy and happy to be getting the income off what used to be a loss to them, which were the tipping fees and handling fees for hauling it to the landfill."

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.