Wool is the quintessential green product – natural, renewable, breathable, fire resistant and – at least in New Zealand – grown on free-range sheep.
The fire-resistance makes wool carpets popular in aeroplanes.
Even without that, the other factors ought to appeal to consumers with a green conscience and a New Zealand company has developed something to make wool carpets tick another environmental box:
Carpet manufacturer Cavalier Bremworth has unveiled a world-first carpet backing product it hopes will secure its environmental footing in the market.
It will reduce around 1200 tonnes of waste from landfills each year because it’s made by recycling your old carpet – but only if it’s made from wool.
It looks like regular old carpet, but replacing the usual jute backing with a recycled wool product has taken two years of development, so Cavalier Bremworth is quite excited.
“Jute is an imported product and it has variable supply and cost,” says Desiree Keown, Cavalier Bremworth marketing manager. “We’ve now secured a product made entirely in New Zealand using New Zealand labour, made entirely from New Zealand recycled carpet so it’s a perfect story.”
It is estimated Kiwis dump 5000 tonnes of carpet in landfills each year. Synthetic carpet takes 50 years to break down – even pure wool takes a year.
But Cavalier Bremworth will slash that waste by a quarter. It plans to recycle 1200 tonnes of old wool carpet, turning it into new carpet backing.
Natural, renewable, breathable, fire resistant, grown on free-range sheep, using recycled material that reduces waste – how hard can it be to sell that?
” the other factors ought to appeal to consumers with a green conscience ” ..
HP.. We all world wide have a green conscience.. .. And small pockets..
Tugging at heart strings is not going to change world thinking IMO..