Green Floorcovering Products

Here are examples of floorcovering products, and why manufacturers claim these are green and/or environmentally responsible:

Bamboo

More dimensionally stable and more durable than many types of hardwood floorcovering. When properly maintained, bamboo floorcovering has a long life cycle, far outlasting the time needed for new bamboo to be grown and harvested to produce additional floorcovering.

Carpet

Manufacturers are increasingly using biodegradable dyes and solutions, as well as recycled post-industrial content and recycled wastewater in the manufacturing of their carpet and carpet backings. The practice of closed-loop recycling, which essentially takes carpet manufacturing waste and by–products to create new carpets, is growing. Major carpet mills and fiber suppliers have carpet reclamation programs that extend the life of the original raw materials. These programs have kept tens of millions of pounds of used commercial carpet out of landfills. With proper maintenance, most carpet has a long life cycle.

Ceramic

Made from primarily natural and renewable ingredients. Many manufacturers use recycled content and manufacturing waste in their products. An environmentally attractive product with exceptional durability and a long life cycle.

Cork

Made from natural, renewable raw ingredients. Biodegradable.

Linoleum

The floorcovering and jute backing are made from primarily natural, renewable, and/or abundant raw ingredients including cork or wood flour, linseed oil, limestone and organic pigments. The floorcovering is biodegradable.

Slate, stone, marble

Natural products with low raw materials extraction environmental impact, and exceptionally long life cycles.

Resilient

A new type of resilient floorcovering is chlorine free, exceptionally durable, low cost, easy to maintain, VOC and plasticizer-free, and recyclable. One vinyl floorcovering manufacturer is  incorporating vinyl liners from recycled automotive safety glass windshields, as well as recycled plastic bottles, into its manufacturing process. Many vinyl floorcovering manufacturers use post-industrial PVC scrap and recycled PVC by-products in their floorcovering products. Resilient floors have exceptional durability and a long life cycle.

Rubber

Some rubber floors are made from recycled automobile tires, and are efficient users of post-consumer as well as post-industrial waste. Many synthetic rubber floorcoverings have a longer life cycle, and less negative impact on the environment over time, than natural rubber products.

Vinyl composition tile

VCT is made primarily of limestone, an abundant, renewable natural resource. It is also rated higher in overall environmental performance than linoleum and recycled-content ceramic tile by the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) methodology, a life cycle assessment analysis developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Wood/Hardwood

Certified wood products are environmentally responsible and require low energy for producing the finished product. Third party forest certification is based on standards developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This means the wood comes from well-managed forests and has undergone an extensive certification process. These products carry the FSC stamp, and a percentage claim. Most wood floorcovering companies are reducing or eliminating their purchases of wood harvested from old-growth forests. Traditional hardwood is biodegradable.