Home Builder Announces Plan to Use Recyclable Carpeting in All New Homes

The homebuilder KB Home announced that it is teaming up with the carpet manufacturer Shaw to offer only recyclable carpet in all its new homes. The carpets are made of Nylon 6, the only material capable of being continuously recycled into dyeable carpet fiber.

This decision furthers KB Home's commitment to building more sustainable, environmentally friendly homes. While KB Home already offers Shaw low-VOC carpet that meets the Carpet and Rug Institute Green Label Plus standards, all carpet offered in homes that begin construction after June 30, 2009 will also be recyclable.

"This is one more example of how KB Home is exploring all aspects of our homes and finding ways to use more environmentally friendly products that are good for our customers and our planet," said Jeffrey Mezger, president and CEO of KB Home. "As a national homebuilder, we take seriously the opportunity we have to change the way new homes are built today for the sake of a better tomorrow. Shaw has been an outstanding partner to work within our company-wide commitment to sustainability."

Home buyers are able to choose between Shaw's Anso nylon carpets and other Nylon 6 carpets, both of which are recyclable using a cradle-to-cradle manufacturing process that converts old carpet into a raw material that can be used to make new carpet.

Shaw's Anso nylon products also contain post-consumer carpet content derived from its recycling operation. The company currently recycles 120 million pounds of Nylon 6 carpet each year and was recently recognized by the EPA and the Carpet America Recovery Effort with the EPA/CARE Innovations in Carpet Recycling Award for the company's Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility and leadership in post-consumer carpet recycling.

Shaw's Evergreen facility is part of a system of post-consumer carpet collection, recycling, and value recovery on a large scale. Shaw has reclaimed and recycled more than 225 million pounds of post-consumer carpet since Evergreen's opening in 2007.