MARIETTA, Ga., March 25, 2010 – In a milestone step forward in further minimizing the environmental footprint of the carpet industry, global flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries announced its alliance with Polar Materials, Inc., a Covington, Georgia-based company specializing in the use of recycled materials to replace mined minerals. Leveraging Polar Materials’ innovative manufacturing process C2C (carpet-to-carpet), the partnership brings to market a first-of-its-kind carpet backing filler created from recycled carpet waste – helping to advance post-consumer recycling efforts and significantly reduce the amount of carpet waste sent to the landfill every year.

“Polar Materials’ C2C technology presents tremendous promise for the carpet industry,” said Vann Brown, vice president of innovation and technology, Mohawk Industries. “Not only is it an environmentally responsible solution for increasing post-consumer recycled content in products, but it also minimizes the already heavy burden on our nation’s landfills by reducing carpet waste and improving the economics of carpet recycling. Mohawk has a long history of forward-thinking innovation and our partnership with Polar Materials is no exception. This is a win-win for our entire industry.”

Waste sand, or calcium carbonate plus latex, from reclaimed carpet is put through the patent-pending C2C process, which removes residual carpet fibers and blends the sand with limestone commonly used as filler for latex carpet backings. The annual consumption of limestone in carpet exceeds 800,000 tons per year; replacing just 35 percent of limestone with the recycled carpet sand from C2C can potentially divert more than 280,000 tons – 560 million lbs. – of carpet from the landfills each year.

The C2C carpet filler satisfies Sustainable Carpet Assessment Standard NSF-140 2007, the industry’s national sustainability benchmark for ensuring environmentally and socially responsible carpeting products, for post-consumer recycled content goals. Mohawk is currently using the material in their Mohawk Home division with plans to expand into the Flooring segment.

“The carpet recycling network has worked hard to gain a sustainable acceptance for products reclaimed from carpet recycling operations,” said Joseph Keating, Polar Materials, Inc. “The ability to recover and reuse old backing components is a major step forward, along with new waste-to-energy facilities, growth in carpet pad manufacture and new innovative methods for better processing and more uses for the recovered polymers.”

Polar Materials’ C2C carpet backing filler is produced in its Dalton, Ga. manufacturing facility, which was built in collaboration with Franklin Limestone/Lhoist NA specifically for C2C.

About Mohawk Industries

A long-standing industry leader in sustainability, Mohawk Industries pioneers a strong focus on driving environmentally sound practices inside and outside of its facilities. The flooring manufacturer continues to make significant investments in state-of-the-art technologies to enable the creation of life enhancing, eco-friendly products and processes. For more information about Mohawk's sustainability initiatives, visit www.Mohawkind.com.

About Polar Materials, Inc.

Polar Materials, and their affiliated company, Vitro Minerals, specialize in recycling glass, vinyl, and carpet components into mineral fillers for reuse in the manufacture of new products. These sustainable additives reduce the requirements for mined materials, recycling valuable ingredients into new production. The result is substantial landfill avoidance of products at the end of their life cycle.