Article Number: 6254
Shaw shows its ‘Clear Path’ to sustainability, Phase one of PET Recycling facility complete
By Matthew Spieler
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—Eighteen months after Shaw Industries and DAK Americas announced the creation of a joint venture company, Clear Path Recycling (CPR), to recycle post-consumer plastic drinking bottles, executives of the three companies gathered to cut the ribbon of the completion of phase one on what will eventually become the largest recycling facility in North America.
Ron Salati, CPR’s vice president of administration and commercial sales, called the official start-up a “milestone. Four years ago, [Shaw] issued a challenge to DAK to create a way to feed Shaw. What you see before you is the result of a great deal of hard work and dedication of our parent companies in their sustainability initiatives of reducing environmental impact while creating a viable product for use in their product offerings.”
Vance Bell, Shaw’s CEO, gave a number of reasons as why two companies “may differ in the products and services we deliver,” can come together to create a facility like this. Most notably, “We are united in our commitment to business excellence, innovation and sustainability. Clear Path is a result of these shared values and will benefit both companies in our respective markets.”
He pointed out that Shaw “has a long-standing relationship” with DAK’s parent company, ALFA, through a joint venture in Mexico. “This relationship has created strong business trust, as well as strong personal relationships between ALFA, DAK and Shaw management. This level of trust and integrity makes it easy to be in business together.”
Hector Camberos, president and CEO of DAK, added that Shaw and its parent company have worked together for almost 20 years now and it was this long partnership that helped allow the “vision” become a reality even during these tough economic times, which “[have taken] a toll on everyone.”
For Shaw, Bell said, this partnership represents “a great opportunity to enhance some of our most beautiful and sustainable carpet products. The recycled PET from Clear Path will give us the ability to provide our customers with the attractive, durable and environmentally responsible flooring they desire. And it will help us further reduce our use of virgin raw materials, saving energy and moving us closer to our environmental goals in the process.”
Hal Long, Shaw’s executive vice president of operations, added, “Clear Path stands to help us make significant progress toward our commitment to reducing overall energy intensity by 25% by 2017,” noting the bottle recycling will save approximately 1.9 trillion BTUs of energy—an amount equal to the average energy necessary to power more than 20,000 U.S. homes each year.
Billions of bottles
Phase one has the capability to recycle up to 160 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is the equivalent of 2.85 million post-consumer drinking bottles. When the second phase is finished in a couple of years, the facility will have an annual capacity of 280 million pounds or about 5 billion bottles per year.
Post-consumer bottles are collected from around the country and brought to the Fayetteville facility where they are separated, cleaned and shredded into recycled PET (RPET) flake.
During an exclusive tour of the facility, a Clear Path official told FCNews it takes about one hour from the time a bottle first enters the state-of-the-art operation to exiting as RPET flake. The operation was built on DAK property to take advantage of existing resources, such as water treatment. In emphasizing the facility’s innovative features it was noted that water used to clean the bottles is returned to the river system “probably cleaner than when we took it out at the start of the process.”
The flake made from clear bottles is then trucked to Shaw where it is extruded into polyester fiber to be used in the mill’s ClearTouch carpets, which currently incorporate a minimum of 25% post-consumer recycled content.
David Morgan, Shaw’s vice president of manufacturing, said as capacity allows, “we will be increasing the amount of postconsumer flake we insert into our products.”
Shaw and DAK will be the primary users of the RPET flake in their respective polyester based products, which besides carpet includes fibers and resins. The remaining product will be sold for merchant use.
Morgan noted Shaw and DAK will receive a combined 75% of CPR’s output and the remaining 25% will be sold externally.
Edythe McKinney, director of North Carolina’s Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach, said Clear Path is a prime example of how vision and hard work can not only get results but “do so with good, sound environmental practices which are good for the bottom line,” adding the facility will add to the 15,000 jobs in the state’s recycling industry.
This facility, she noted, can demonstrate that a small contribution from citizens, putting a bottle into a recycling container, “can create products that are used in the home.”
J. Keith Crisco, North Carolina’s secretary of commerce, added, Clear Path “is an example of companies doing a good job and creating jobs.”
It was noted that Clear Path has so far created more than 85 permanent jobs in the area.
Editor’s note: To read the rest of this story as well as see more photos from the grand opening, visit our website, fcnews.net.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—Eighteen months after Shaw Industries and DAK Americas announced the creation of a joint venture company, Clear Path Recycling (CPR), to recycle post-consumer plastic drinking bottles, executives of the three companies gathered to cut the ribbon of the completion of phase one on what will eventually become the largest recycling facility in North America.
Ron Salati, CPR’s vice president of administration and commercial sales, called the official start-up a “milestone. Four years ago, [Shaw] issued a challenge to DAK to create a way to feed Shaw. What you see before you is the result of a great deal of hard work and dedication of our parent companies in their sustainability initiatives of reducing environmental impact while creating a viable product for use in their product offerings.”
Vance Bell, Shaw’s CEO, gave a number of reasons as why two companies “may differ in the products and services we deliver,” can come together to create a facility like this. Most notably, “We are united in our commitment to business excellence, innovation and sustainability. Clear Path is a result of these shared values and will benefit both companies in our respective markets.”
He pointed out that Shaw “has a long-standing relationship” with DAK’s parent company, ALFA, through a joint venture in Mexico. “This relationship has created strong business trust, as well as strong personal relationships between ALFA, DAK and Shaw management. This level of trust and integrity makes it easy to be in business together.”
Hector Camberos, president and CEO of DAK, added that Shaw and its parent company have worked together for almost 20 years now and it was this long partnership that helped allow the “vision” become a reality even during these tough economic times, which “[have taken] a toll on everyone.”
For Shaw, Bell said, this partnership represents “a great opportunity to enhance some of our most beautiful and sustainable carpet products. The recycled PET from Clear Path will give us the ability to provide our customers with the attractive, durable and environmentally responsible flooring they desire. And it will help us further reduce our use of virgin raw materials, saving energy and moving us closer to our environmental goals in the process.”
Hal Long, Shaw’s executive vice president of operations, added, “Clear Path stands to help us make significant progress toward our commitment to reducing overall energy intensity by 25% by 2017,” noting the bottle recycling will save approximately 1.9 trillion BTUs of energy—an amount equal to the average energy necessary to power more than 20,000 U.S. homes each year.
Billions of bottles
Phase one has the capability to recycle up to 160 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is the equivalent of 2.85 million post-consumer drinking bottles. When the second phase is finished in a couple of years, the facility will have an annual capacity of 280 million pounds or about 5 billion bottles per year.
Post-consumer bottles are collected from around the country and brought to the Fayetteville facility where they are separated, cleaned and shredded into recycled PET (RPET) flake.
During an exclusive tour of the facility, a Clear Path official told FCNews it takes about one hour from the time a bottle first enters the state-of-the-art operation to exiting as RPET flake. The operation was built on DAK property to take advantage of existing resources, such as water treatment. In emphasizing the facility’s innovative features it was noted that water used to clean the bottles is returned to the river system “probably cleaner than when we took it out at the start of the process.”
The flake made from clear bottles is then trucked to Shaw where it is extruded into polyester fiber to be used in the mill’s ClearTouch carpets, which currently incorporate a minimum of 25% post-consumer recycled content.
David Morgan, Shaw’s vice president of manufacturing, said as capacity allows, “we will be increasing the amount of postconsumer flake we insert into our products.”
Shaw and DAK will be the primary users of the RPET flake in their respective polyester based products, which besides carpet includes fibers and resins. The remaining product will be sold for merchant use.
Morgan noted Shaw and DAK will receive a combined 75% of CPR’s output and the remaining 25% will be sold externally.
Edythe McKinney, director of North Carolina’s Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach, said Clear Path is a prime example of how vision and hard work can not only get results but “do so with good, sound environmental practices which are good for the bottom line,” adding the facility will add to the 15,000 jobs in the state’s recycling industry.
This facility, she noted, can demonstrate that a small contribution from citizens, putting a bottle into a recycling container, “can create products that are used in the home.”
J. Keith Crisco, North Carolina’s secretary of commerce, added, Clear Path “is an example of companies doing a good job and creating jobs.”
It was noted that Clear Path has so far created more than 85 permanent jobs in the area.
Editor’s note: To read the rest of this story as well as see more photos from the grand opening, visit our website, fcnews.net.
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