Shaw Using New Carpet Tile Recycling System

Augusta, GA, June 24, 2010--To increase its efficiency and its ability to recycle its EcoWorx carpet tiles, Shaw Industries has switched to a new shredding and granulating system that keeps temperatures lower and prevents the shredded material from gumming up equipment, according to Plastics News.

The system is designed to shred and recycle 3,000 pounds per hour and is currently being operated 16 hours a day, six days a week by Shaw, Hartmut Bendfeldt, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based eFACTOR, told Plastics News.

“It is a complete system for the shredding of carpet tiles and recycling of fiber that keeps the materials cool when you cut the material. We were able to prove to them that we were able to run the material cool enough,” Bendfeldt said.

Shaw recycles roughly 100 million pounds of carpet annually. The new system is for the recycling of the carpet tile, not broadloom carpeting. It has been in operation since late November at Shaw’s Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility in Augusta, Georgia. It is currently being used to recycle both production waste from the manufacturing of EcoWorx carpet tile made from nylon 6 and post-consumer EcoWorx carpet tile that is recycled.

The backing materials recovered in the process are reused in the production of new backing for EcoWorx carpet tile.

The system uses a Weima America Inc. E-Rotor WLK shredder that chops the fiber up and doesn’t just shred it, Bendfeldt said.

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.