All Hail To Mother Earth!
The Carpet Industry Celebrates Earth Day
Contact: CRI Communications Department, 706.428.2103
April 22, 2002, DALTON, GA - Carpet and Rug Institute staffers James Beach and Sarah Nicholas get a heads up on Earth Day 2002. The two employees decided to pitch in their efforts to help keep the city of Dalton, Georgia beautiful by picking up trash around the companys corporate headquarters. |
| CRI staff members James Beach and Sarah
Nicholas help keep Dalton, GA clean. |
A recent voluntary agreement among the carpet and fiber manufacturers, the Carpet and Rug Institute (www.carpet-rug.org), state governments, non-governmental organizations and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has been designed with an aim at eliminating landfill disposal and incineration of used carpet. In this first agreement of its kind, carpet manufacturers will define the best approach to achieve a 40% landfill diversion goal in a ten-year span.
To help manufacturers, material suppliers and local governments efficiently and cost-effectively recycle and reuse carpet, the carpet industry has established a third-party organization known as the Carpet America Recovery Effort, or CARE (www.carpetrecovery.org). During the agreements ten-year span, CARE will work to establish collection systems for used consumer carpet.
A natural result of the carpet industrys environmental responsibility is their economic impact on natural resource usage. As reported in the Sustainability 2000 report, produced by CRI, the industrys best practices produced economic savings in water, energy, and natural gas usage. In one example a significant reduction in total water usage was reported: the ability to save as much as 22,000 gallons of water per day to process each 1,000 square yards of carpet; the reduction from 14.1 gallons per square yard to 10.1 gallons per square yard in four years; a 46 percent reduction of water usage since 1991.
Carpet industry reductions in annual energy consumption are equivalent to parking 226,000 cars for one year. To get an idea of that magnitude of savings, consider that the city of Washington DC, our nations capital, has a little over 235,000 vehicles registered.
The Carpet industry is proud of its efforts and eagerly celebrates Earth Day (April 22) as it does its part to help sustain Mother Earth.
