Roughly 3 million plastic soft drink containers are discarded each hour. While they only constitute 6.5 percent of all landfill waste by weight, they take up eight times the space per pound of paper or glass. Containers like soft drink and ketchup bottles are produced from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic material which can be melted and reformed with virtually no changes in its physical properties. Image Carpets has been successfully manufacturing carpets using PET for over 15 years. They help to keep more than 180 million pounds of recyclable high-grade plastic bottles out of our landfills each year.

The process they use is interesting. The bottles that come into the plant are sorted, the heavy plastic bottoms and caps are removed, and the remainder is ground up into irregular ¹/₄-inch chips along with the paper labels, glue from bottles and labels, and other impurities. Any paper is blown out of the mixture by air jets, then it moves along the assembly line to a chemical bath that strips the glue. From there the chips go to a two-step water/electrostatic process that isolates PET chips from other impurities. Figure 9-29A shows clean PET chips ready for the final process. These chips end up in about 35 percent of all polyester carpet made in the United States.

Figure 9-29A (below) Clean PET chips ready to use Photo Courtesy of: Image Carpets, Inc.

Figure 9-29B (below) The fibers and yarn made from the chips Photo Courtesy of: Image Carpets, Inc.

These PET chips are melted to the consistency of honey and forced through molds that create fibers about the thickness of a human hair. Finally, the fiber is spun into yarn and tufted into carpet (Figure 9-29B). PET polyester is one of the strongest man-made fibers. Its versatility, durability, and inherent resistance to stains make PET the popular choice for a variety of consumer products ranging from seat belts to tire cords to carpet.

Image Carpets handles their own recycling, processing for the polyester fibers, and manufacturing of the carpet. They also provide other manufacturers with PET and fibers. Two yarn systems made from the Enviro-Tech process are Resistron and Duratron. Both are made from the high-molecular-weight PET fibers. Resistron, a hydrophobic PET fiber, resists wet and dry soil and diffuses static build-up. Duratron blends nylon and PET for rich, lustrous colors with increased static control, as well as soil-, stain-, and wear-resistance. These are environmentally-friendly carpets that you need to feel and see to believe. They give you something new to offer your customers.

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