A new energy source: old carpets

DALTON, Ga. — Here in the “Carpet Capital of the World,” the vast manufacturing plants that supply almost half the nation’s carpet also pump out reams of wasted scraps that eventually wind up in landfills.

Next month, the world’s largest carpet maker plans to do something about the problem, opening a one-of-a-kind power plant that will be fueled by the 16,000 tons of overruns, rejects and remnants it turns out every year.

Shaw Industries Inc. hopes the $10 million plant, which will power one of its main factories, can help the company save the $2.5 million a year that would have gone to buy fuel oil.

If the project proves successful, its designers expect it will reverberate throughout the industry and particularly this northwest Georgia town, where the rolling hills are dotted with carpet factories, warehouses and discount outlets.

“Everybody is watching, and we’ve been looking for years to find a way to convert waste carpet that makes sense,” said Howard Elder, research director for competitor J & J Industries.

But Elder quickly added that others will only follow suit if the alternative energy makes economic sense. “I wouldn’t think the minute it comes on and appears successful it will proliferate in tens.”

The plant’s engineers say the process is environmentally sound, emitting roughly the same amount of pollution as natural gas. In addition to carpet scraps, the plant will also burn the 6,000 tons of sawdust the company produces every year from the manufacture of wood flooring.

The Carpet and Rug Institute says 4.7 billion pounds of carpet is dumped in U.S. landfills each year, filling up almost 1 percent of the country’s total landfill space.

To the man who helped persuade his company to embrace the idea, it all makes sense — especially in light of rising oil costs.

“Why pay someone to dig it out of the ground and pay someone else to put it in the landfill?” asked Gary Nichols, Shaw’s corporate energy manager, noting that most carpet is made from plastics and other oil products.

Sure, changing waste carpet into energy may seem like a shoo-in for the carpet industry. A pound of carpet has roughly the same energy potential as a pound of coal, Nichols said.

But years of failed attempts and bad news in this close-knit carpet town have long discouraged industry leaders from taking the next step. Since carpet is made from plastic materials, it often melted, ruining some conversion attempts. Other endeavors failed when the process proved too toxic to meet air pollution standards. Word that a carpet-incinerating boiler exploded in nearby Cartersville years ago didn’t help matters.

Yet as energy costs rose, the dusty premise that waste carpet could be used to fuel production suddenly became more viable, and Nichols pleaded for years with the company’s hierarchy to take another look at converting waste carpet into energy.

The result: Shaw Industries joined with engineers from Siemens Building Technology to design a plant they think perfects the once-faulty conversion process.

“This process has very far-reaching ramifications,” said Clark Wiedetz, a Siemens business development manager. “It’s the first of its kind, and the interest even during the last 15 months has been incredible.”