Shaw's Evergreen - Such a Pretty Picture

This may not be the stunning product photography you’re used to seeing on this page, but to me, it’s absolutely gorgeous – bundles of reclaimed carpet collected by Shaw Carpet at its Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility in Augusta GA.

Evergreen is based on the Cradle-to-Cradle methodology that recycles Nylon 6 carpets back into its molecular components to produce fiber virtually indistinguishable from virgin fiber, which is then used to make new carpet.

Turning a material back into itself (verses down-cycling) is the gold standard of recycling and Evergreen is attracting attention in the hospitality sector. According to Desiree Worsley, Shaw Hospitality Group’s Vice President of Marketing, they are gaining ground in the lodging industry because of the reclamation program and have landed a number of large contracts with national hotel chains. As she noted, “We can’t charge more for commodity goods such as guest room carpet so we’ve re-engineered the process with Cradle-to-Cradle.”

Kimpton Hotels chose Shaw as its vendor for the Nine Zero Hotel guest room renovation in Boston where they reclaimed 38,444 pounds of used carpet. “When choosing vendors,” says David Sussman, SVP of Development and Design, “Kimpton looks for opportunities to partner with companies that share our commitment to environmental sustainability. Shaw Hospitality Group has the resources that allow Kimpton to meet the goals of our EarthCare program. We began talking to Shaw more than a year ago about the prospect of keeping waste out of landfills, using product with recycled content and finding a way to recycle the waste coming out of our renovations. This was not only important to us, but to them as well. 

“When we started working on the Nine Zero Hotel reclamation project,” Sussman continues, “we sent in a small sample of the carpet we wanted replaced. This carpet was tested by Shaw to see if it met the reclamation standards, and it did. From there, [they] arranged the reclamation process in conjunction with our Facilities Property Manager, Tom Concilio. During the demolition of the rooms, all we had to do was put the used carpet in a separate container.

“The whole reclamation process was revenue neutral - we were able to avoid sending more than 19 tons of carpet to the landfill, without spending more. We did all these things without sacrificing design, performance and most importantly, our budget…Simple as that!”