Heather Sheehan of Allied Signal (now Honeywell after a merger which took place shortly after this show was taped), the manufacturer of the nylon fiber in the carpeting selected by First Lady Roxane Gilmore for the private living quarters was on hand to highlight some of the carpet's benefits.
Two important considerations for Mrs. Gilmore in chosing carpet were that it be very high quality and that it be environmentally friendly. The Infinity™ nylon carpet selected met both of these criteria with ease. The quality of the carpet is obvious in its very deep pile, and as Anso® nylon produces no outgassing, it would in no way impact the air quality for the people living in the Executive Mansion. Moreover, since the First Lady chose to make this an area rug rather than wall-to-wall, there are no chemicals, such as glue, used in the installation process, and as the pad is not a synthetic pad, there are no concerns about allergic reactions.
Additionally, the carpeting is both made from recycled materials and will be completely recyclable the next time Virginia's First Family decides to redecorate. With over 2 billion pounds of waste carpet ending up in landfills each year, recycling makes a lot of sense. Scotts Lints joined Heather to explain the recyling process. In a renovation project the first step is to identify the composition of the waste carpet. Utilizing a newly developed technology Scott can sort carpet in the field with an infra-red tester and identify recyclable nylon 6 material. Then instead of dumping the waste carpet into a landfill, it can now be baled up and shipped to the Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility in Augusta, GA.
Here Infinity™ nylon, the product of a patented closed-loop nylon 6 renewal process, is created from post-consumer carpet made with Anso® nylon and other nylon 6 fibers by depolymerizing the nylon content of the carpet back into caprolactam—building blocks of all nylon 6 products. The Infinity™ nylon process actually renews nylon 6 to create virgin-quality caprolactam. The new caprolactam will produce Anso® nylon carpet fibers that are indistinguishable from original Anso® nylon fibers—which is the hallmark of a true closed loop system.
In addition to eliminating significant carpet waste, the renewal of nylon 6 will save 4.4 trillion BTUs of energy annually—enough power to heat over 100,000 homes each year. It will also create 100 million pounds of virgin-quality nylon 6 per year, reduce the dependence on foreign oil, and create new jobs throughout the recycling industry.
Carpet installer Eric Albert was also on hand to custom bind the rug to fit the unique contours of this five-sided room leaving a 12 inch border of wood floor exposed all the way around. To accomplish this the rug was brought in already bound. Eric custom cut the odd angle of the carpet on site and then hand bound it.
One advantage of hand binding is that you don't see the stitches you see with machine binding. The first step in the hand binding process is to staple the 1 1/4" cotton binding to the rug. Then Eric takes a latex based adhesive and glues the binding to the backing creating a nice clean edge all the way around the perimeter. The finished look is neat and elegant.
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