Carpet Sustainability Facts For Dealers, Consumers

A Great Investment For The Future

The Facts about Carpet and Sustainability for Dealers and Consumers

This is the 13th in a series of 18 articles designed to share some of the Carpet and Rug Institute’s (CRI) best online assets – a collection of downloadable fact sheets.

Developed as easy-to-use, one-page position statements, the CRI Fact Sheets cover four main carpet-related topic areas: Indoor Air Quality, Asthma and Allergy, Cleaning Products, and Environmental Sustainability.

Each of these topics is addressed from the perspective of various market segments: carpet dealers and consumers; architects, designers and builders; school administrators and facility managers, and healthcare administrators and facility managers. There are also separate fact sheets explaining CRI’s Green Label Plus Indoor Air Quality and Seal of Approval carpet cleaning standards – 18 fact sheets in all.

The fact sheet on sustainability for carpet dealers and consumers begins:

"The carpet industry is not only designing ways to make carpet last longer, it’s also designing ways to reduce the environmental footprint. Manufacturers are voluntarily addressing this problem by recycling old carpet materials into new carpet production or alternative uses, as well as refurbishing old carpet into new carpet tiles. Because less waste means a better future for us all." It continues:

What You Should Know about carpet sustainability for carpet dealers and consumers:

• Through the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), carpet companies are taking the initiative to work with government entities and product suppliers to develop market-based solutions for the recycling and use of post-consumer carpet. For more information, visit carpetrecovery.org.

• It is estimated that carpet recycling efforts currently have saved more than 1.5 billion pounds of waste from being deposited in U.S. landfills.

• Many times, carpet is replaced before it is worn out because it no longer has the appearance of a new carpet. CRI understands the investment put into a carpet - and also the environmental ramifications of replacing carpet before its time. That’s why we created the CRI Seal of Approval program – to extend carpet’s longevity.

• The Seal of Approval program helps customers identify carpet cleaning products that clean effectively without harming the carpet. From spot cleaning to periodic deep extraction cleaning, proper carpet maintenance is the first step in preserving the life of carpet. For a list of certified carpet cleaning products, click on Seal of Approval at carpet-rug.org.

• The carpet industry is constantly looking for ways to continue to reduce its environmental footprint.

Learn more in the CRI Sustainability Reports on the CRI website. Visit carpet-rug.org and criblog.org to learn more.

CRI wants to be known not just as the science-based source of information about carpet, but as the first stop for any and all questions about this useful floor covering.

Click on this link for the complete list of Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) Downloadable Fact Sheets.

Next – The facts about sustainability for architects, designers and builders.

~Bethany