Carpet in the hospitality industry can be found everywhere. Guestrooms, lobbies, convention centers, almost anywhere where people walk, you’ll find carpet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in the US alone, over 4 billion pounds of this carpet finds its way into our landfills and solid-waste disposal systems.

Any way you spin it, that’s a lot of carpet going into the landfill. Hospitality carpet manufactures including Dalton Hospitality Carpet Mills are attempting to make an impact on this waste. There are several initiatives that are being employed.

One of the most aggressive systems in place to reclaim some of this carpet waste is a system where the discarded nylon carpet is depolymerized and returned to the manufacturing process. These recycled fibers are almost virgin nylon again. Basically the reclaimed nylon becomes carpet fibers again with no degradation. A consumer or a lab would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the reclaimed nylon and freshly manufactured nylon.

Still another means, is combining post-industrial recycled content with virgin content. This type of system can be employed for both the carpet fibers and the backing making a more eco-friendly product that is superior in all aspects of quality.

Not only are these new manufacturing techniques eco-friendly, but being “green” doesn’t cost any extra in the carpet industry as it might with other products.