DALTON, GA.—Shaw Industries, Inc., through its division Shaw Hospitality Group, and La Quinta Inns & Suites have partnered to keep more than 30 tons of carpet from landfills during five La Quinta hotel renovations in Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. Shaw Hospitality Group, a manufacturer of sustainable, reclaimable carpets for public spaces and guestrooms, was specified earlier this year to re-carpet La Quinta guestrooms during a large-scale renovation project.
Instead of sending tons of the old hotel carpet to landfills, Shaw Hospitality Group worked with La Quinta to reclaim the carpet and divert it to Shaw Industries’ Evergreen Nylon Recycling Center in Augusta, Ga., the world’s largest non-pilot post-consumer Type 6 nylon recycling facility. Through this Shaw Green Edge Recycling Program, used carpet fiber is broken down into caprolactum, the building block for carpet fiber, without degrading the quality or performance of the carpet fiber.
More than 30 tons of carpet has been reclaimed from La Quinta hotels in Nashville; Beaumont, Texas; Columbia, S.C.; and Lake Mary and Orlando, Fla. An additional reclamation project is planned for another Orlando hotel near the University of Central Florida.
Shaw’s pre-existing reclamation program, attentive customer service, ease of participating in the project and a dedicated reclamation coordinator led La Quinta to specify Shaw Hospitality Group for the project, according to Murry Cathlina, La Quinta’s executive vice president, Design & Construction.
No Extra Cost Involved
“At La Quinta, we are always looking for ways we can help the environment and provide more sustainable programs at both a corporate level and to our guests,” Cathlina said. “Participating in the carpet reclamation program was an easy decision for us. There was no extra cost in purchasing carpet from Shaw Hospitality Group that had recycled content in it. We are able to divert tons of old carpet from landfills without incurring additional expense. Considering these factors, the choice was very clear.”
Shaw Industries coordinated the reclamation process; the old carpet was placed in a dumpster at the property and picked up by a Shaw recycling partner. The carpet was then taken to the Evergreen Recycling Facility where it began the process of becoming new carpet.
The renovated La Quinta guestrooms have been designed with new Shaw Hospitality Group sustainable carpet manufactured with Eco Solution Q nylon, which is Cradle to Cradle certified by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry and contains 25 percent pre-consumer recycled content. When this carpet reaches the end of its useful life, Shaw Hospitality Group can reclaim the carpet again, turning the used carpet fiber into new carpet fiber through the Shaw Green Edge Recycling Program.
Since the acquisition of Evergreen by Shaw in February 2007, more than 204 million pounds of carpet have been recycled through the facility, which is the cornerstone of Shaw’s overall sustainability commitment.
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