Recycling Coalition Honors C&A for Recycling Innov
Dalton, GA, October 6, 2005--C&A Floorcoverings, a Tandus company, announces that it has earned the National Recycling Coalition’s (NRC) award for Outstanding Recycling Innovation – Product or Process for the introduction of C&A’s ethos backing.
Each year, the NRC recognizes outstanding waste reduction and recycling achievements through its Annual Awards program. This year’s event was held during the NRC Annual Congress & Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from August 28-31. Dobbin Callahan and Cathy Arvig accepted the award on behalf of C&A.
“For a long time, C&A has been concerned with the manner in which we make our products and what happens to them when our customers remove them,” said Callahan, general manager, Government Markets, Tandus. “We’ve been evaluating alternative backing polymers for a number of years. It’s important that we provide our customers a choice of environmentally preferable products at a comparable cost without compromising our products’ performance.”
“The winners of NRC’s Annual Awards represent the most creative and cutting-edge ideas and programs in recycling today,” said Kate Krebs, NRC executive director. “Their leadership and achievements are models for others around the nation to follow.”
What is ethos? C&A introduced ethos carpet backing in June 2004. The backing is made from polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film recovered from safety and windshield glass recycling. C&A is the first manufacturer to recycle this thermoplastic resin into a high-performance carpet backing.
The ethos backing made with PVB, a nonchlorinated vinyl, contains 76% post-consumer recycled content, and the recycled content of the overall carpet product ranges from 30 to 52%, depending on the style, with a minimum of 30% post-consumer content. The ethos product meets or exceeds the performance of similar carpeting made with traditional PVC backings. It is also 100% recyclable today and is currently being recycled in C&A’s existing take-back program. C&A styles made with the ethos backing also represent a multitude of environmentally preferable characteristics beyond recycled content.
“The quality of this year’s applications was outstanding,” said Christine McCoy, chair of the NRC Awards Committee and a member of the NRC board of directors. “It is obvious from the range of applications we received that the recycling community continues to find innovative solutions to the challenges we face, while proving that recycling is an important element in community and economic development strategies, as well as environmental protection.”
