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July 10, 2009

Shaw joins EPA WasteWise program, commits to reduce waste and increase recycling

Submitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

ATLANTA — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency welcomed Shaw Industries, Inc., the world’s largest carpet manufacturer and a leading floor covering provider, as its newest WasteWise partner.

WasteWise partners are organizations that voluntarily set goals to reduce municipal solid waste. Partners include businesses, institutions, and other organizations representing 50 industrial sectors committed to cutting costs and conserving natural resources. EPA provides WasteWise partners with technical assistance and helps promote the achievement of its partners.

Shaw is a leading recycler of post-consumer carpet, and the comprehensive Shaw Green Edge Recycling program reclaims and recycles carpet nationwide. At the company’s Evergreen Recycling Facility in Augusta, Ga., post-consumer carpet is recovered and then remanufactured. The by-product of the recycling process is also recovered for ultimate reuse as post-consumer recycled content in carpet backing. Shaw also manufactures a line of wood flooring from post-industrial recycled wood that uses 50 percent less harvested wood than comparable engineered wood flooring. Carpet scraps, along with all waste generated from laminate manufacturing at Shaw’s facility in Ringgold, Ga., is diverted from landfills and used to generate fuel. An innovative waste-to-energy technology converts carpet and wood waste to steam energy through gasification.

Shaw is joining EPA’s WasteWise program as it is launching a project to better track its efforts in reducing the amount of post-industrial waste produced in all of its carpet, rug, hardwood and laminate manufacturing facilities. The total post-industrial waste produced will be compared to the amount of finished production, and Shaw intents to significantly reduce that percentage over the next three years and beyond.

WasteWise partners have used innovative waste management methods to reduce and recycle more than 150 million tons of waste. By decreasing the demand on raw materials, WasteWise partners have shown that they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower costs.

WasteWise is a voluntary partnership program launched by EPA in 1994 with more than 2,000 partners. WasteWise partners not only reduce waste, but also are addressing global climate change. By decreasing the demand on raw materials through waste reduction and recycling, these organizations are improving operations, reducing costs, and minimizing their environmental footprints.

Information on WasteWise: www.epa.gov/wastewise

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