Shaw Exits PVC Backing

At the June 2004 NeoCon tradeshow in Chicago, Shaw Industries, Inc. announced that it is phasing out its PVC-backed carpet tile. “At the end of the year, we will be exiting PVC entirely,” announced Steve Bradfield, Shaw’s corporate director of environmental affairs. “We’re not leaving PVC because we think it’s a terrible material,” Bradfield explains, but rather because Ecoworx

® offers higher performance and lighter weight at the same cost. He also explained that the PVC backing complicates the reclamation options, because “anything that breaks down nylon also affects PVC.”