New Interface Backing Decreases Petroleum Dependen
LaGrange, GA, November 17, 2005--In 1994 Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface, Inc., challenged the company to embarked on a whole-systems approach to improving processes and products.
Vinyl backing is a petroleum and energy intensive component accounting for 40-60% of a finished carpet tile product. Finding an alternative to this high performance backing was not as interesting to Interface as was finding a more efficient way to produce it.
In development for more than five years and coming on line now is a new, flexible-inputs backing line at the company’s LaGrange, Ga., manufacturing facility.
Using next generation thermoplastic technology, the custom-designed backing line from Germany will dramatically improve the company’s ability to keep reclaimed and waste carpet in the ‘technical loop,’ and further open Interface to exploring other plastics and polymers as inputs, with the ultimate potential of diverting more than 20 million pounds of plastics from the landfill every year.
Powered by methane gas from a local landfill, the new backing line improves the company’s fuel efficiency and use of renewable materials while increasing the recycled content of its products.
“This is the most substantial investment we’ve made in distancing ourselves from the well head, and the one with the most potential to reinvent the way carpet tile is manufactured,” said John Bradford, vice president of research and development. “Alternative, renewable energy; renewable, recyclable materials; and a high performance backing made from recycled materials – the trifecta for sustainability.” Nicknamed “Cool Blue,” the new process will come on line in two phases, and is expected to reach full capacity production in the second quarter of 2006.
Traditionally, Interface carpet tile was manufactured with a backing construction that included two layers of vinyl, in a process that was transportation and energy intensive, and was fueled by oil and utilized virgin PVC. On the market for nearly 30 years, this GlasBac backing is a differentiator for Interface, because it provides dimensional stability that keeps carpet tiles lying flat and requires little to no adhesive for installation.
In recent years, Interface has successfully integrated reclaimed and waste vinyl backing into its product, producing a recycled backing, GlasBac RE, that is an improvement on the product, but not the process. Limitations included existing backing line technology, and the fact that only the carpet backing, and not the face fiber, could be reconstituted. Face fiber is separated from reclaimed/waste backing and sent waste-to-energy, a last/best alternative to the landfill.
“Cool Blue” works because the next generation thermoplastic technology allows for a gentle heating of the inputs – backing, face fiber, other plastics – to soften and reconstitute them for backing. The process requires no virgin PVC and is much less energy intensive than traditional systems. Most importantly, the gentle heating element of the system will allow for experimentation in the future with other plastics and polymers.
“Cool Blue” by the numbers
• “Cool Blue” is expected to increase Interface’s capacity to recycle waste into new carpet backing from approximately 5 million pounds per year to as much as 15 million pounds per year. Given that there is 30 years’ worth of carpet in the marketplace to reclaim, this is key.
• “Cool Blue” is expected to reduce the amount of material Interface sends for waste-to-energy conversion by 48 percent, compared to 2004 numbers. Combined with other initiatives aimed at keeping materials in the technical loop, total waste-to-energy conversion by Interface is expected to decrease 63 percent. Typically, waste-to-energy utilizes less than 25 percent of the embodied energy of a product, while this new process allows Interface to utilize 50 percent.
