 |
||
 |
|
 |
 |
||
Green, Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Rugs, Carpets & Pads
How we maintain the health and beauty of the world around us shapes our quality of life. Fortunately, the world is not only becoming more and more aware of the need to care for our environment, but many are responding to these needs more than ever in our history.
Recently, the carpet industry has been innovative in developing sustainable products which respect both the environment and the conservation of its resources. "Green", environmentally friendly carpets, rugs, padding and installation materials with low voc (volatile organic compound) emissions are now readily available.
Oriental Rugs
Hand-woven rugs are about as “green” as you can get. Oriental rugs are made entirely by hand using virtually no machinery. The wool of the pile and the cotton of the foundation are both plentiful and renewable. The fibers are carded (combed) by hand, spun by hand, using a foot pedal for power. All natural vegetal dyes are often used and the rugs are woven and finished by hand.
Hand-woven rugs also provide the ultimate recycling opportunity; they last for decades and can be passed on for generations.
Natural fiber wall-to-wall carpeting is also more popular as well as heathful. Wool and sisal are readily available, but more exotic abaca, coir, jute are worth seeking out for their interesting variety of texture. Linen and silk are luxurious fibers which are now being introduced into wall-to-wall carpeting made right here in the U.S.
Woven Wool Carpet
Woven wool has always been the benchmark standard for the Carpet industry. Endlessly renewable and still the most durable, easiest to maintain, softest, and most colorful carpet fiber, wool is not only the finest material but also the most "green".
Raising sheep is eco-friendly and efficient, with one sheep producing 60 to 250 pounds of wool in the course of its life, but wool is even more natural and ecologically friendly than it appears. Wool is a natural air conditioner, absorbing and releasing heat and moisture to balance a room's conditions. Woolen yarns also trap air, making wool carpets great insulators of heat and sound. It is naturally highly stain and soil-resistant because its outer layer is a thin water-repellent coating that resists the absorption of water. A wool carpet allows liquid spills to bead up on its surface for a time and resists staining. 
Another inherent characteristic of wool is that it is highly fire resistant. Unlike the plant fibers, wool may smolder but its flames are self-extinguishing.
In addition, most wool carpets are made on premium weaving machines, not high speed tufting machines, so the natural beauty of wool can be designed into exquisite patterns. Wool also stays beautiful longer than any synthetic. It is naturally springy, retains its color exceptionally well, and is naturally stain resistant.
Nylon Carpet
Today's nylon has become environmentally sustainable with closed loop recycling. (Closed-loop recycling reuses recovered materials to manufacture new, 100% post-consumer recycled products.) We hope to offer carpet recycling in the near future.