Today (February 17th 2023) marks 14 years since our first 20 foot container of used Interface Carpet tiles left New Zealand, destined for Interface in La Grange, Georgia USA for the first time.
Since then, we have proudly returned over 516 tonnes of carpet tile back to Interface, the manufacturer. They take this “waste” and break it down to 3 components, Yarn, backing fiber and PVC chip. The yarn is returned to the global supplier, either Universal or Aquafil to re-enter the production process. The other two layers are incorporated into the backing of “new” carpet tiles.
So far this year just over 4000m2 of carpet tile have left New Zealand, for Minto, NSW Australia. Another 3000m2+ of carpet tile is currently sitting in our warehouse waiting to fill a container and be shipped back, with plenty more in the pipeline to return to us in the coming months.
It has taken over a decade of work to get to a model that works and now, thanks to the support of contractors and the A&D community we are seeing meaningful amounts of flooring returning through the Ministry for Environment certified ReEntry Product Stewardship Programme.
It's a step in the right direction, but is by no means fully resolved, there is still so much more we need to do in this space as an industry.
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