North American Technologies Group Gets CARE Grant

Houston, TX, June 26--North American Technologies Group, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a cash grant from Carpet America Recovery Effort ("CARE") to continue research into the use of post-consumer carpet as a raw material for its TieTek composite railroad tie. CARE is a not-for-profit industry association whose mission is, "Developing market-based solutions for the recycling and reuse of post-consumer carpet." CARE members, including Shaw Industries, Mohawk, Solutia, BP Amoco, DuPont, and Honeywell, represent the key names in the carpet industry. CARE is leading the effort to turn discarded post-consumer carpet into valuable feedstock and products. "We send an estimated 4.7 billion pounds of carpet to the landfill each year. It is the goal of CARE to reduce that total amount by 40% by the year 2012. CARE has taken a proactive approach to increase activity in the marketplace in the research, recovery, and product development, and marketing areas. Our goal is to grow in momentum and diverted pounds in years to come," said Frank K. Hurd, CARE Chairman. NATK's subsidiary TieTek, Inc. manufactures TieTek composite railroad ties from a mixture of recycled raw materials. TieTek has already been successful in utilizing recycled tires, plastic buckets, bottles, film and other recycleable materials. The CARE grant is for TieTek, Inc. research and development efforts into the use of recycled carpet as one of the raw materials in the production of the composite railroad ties. "The use of post-consumer carpet as a raw material in composite rail ties is a compelling environmental win-win. Rarely is the fit so good with so many positives and no negatives. You don't have to cut down trees, you don't have to soak them in creosote, they last longer, and you are using a value raw material instead of sending it to the landfill," says Dr. Robert Peoples, Solutia's Director for Carpet Sustainability and CARE Vice-Chairman. "We appreciate this opportunity to work hand-in-hand with CARE and its members to keep this valuable resource out of landfills and turn it into an improved product. We thank CARE and all of its members," stated Henry W. Sullivan, CEO and President of NATK.

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