Fez carpet tiles are made of 85% post consumer recycled PET (polyester) fiber, and are designed for medium traffic residential use.  The 19.7″ square tiles come in seven different colors, as well as pre-designed rug kits ranging in size from 3′ x 5′ to 8′ x 10′.  Individual tiles are on sale for $7.99 (reg. $9.99), and a 3′ x 5′ rug can be had for only $47.94.

Best of all, when you are done with the tiles, FLOR will send you a pre-paid pouch to send them back so they can be recycled into new rug material!

At only $2.97 per square foot, how can you go wrong?

The U.S. based company Air Dye has managed to do exactly that, by creating a new technology that can dye fabric without using a single drop of water!  This is an amazing advancement, and one we desperately need in the textile industry.  There is one problem though – other than getting the word out and encouraging fabric companies to give it a try…

The Air Dye system can only be used on synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.  That being said, with synthetic fabrics so prevalent in the interior design industry, the water and energy savings alone make looking for the Air Dye label a new must for designers.  And what are those savings you ask.  Well, according to Air Dye’s website:

“Synthetic textile-dyeing consumes 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year, enough to fill 3,700,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. AirDye reduces water use up to 95 percent, (Percentage include the production of raw materials used in our process).

Our one-step process cuts the energy consumption of dyeing by up to 86 percent.  That’s more than 2.8 trillion megajoules per year — enough to power more than 12 percent of the homes in the United States for a year.”

So who is using this new technology? So far in the interior design world,  Hunter Douglas Hospitality and FLOR carpet tiles have both signed on, and I’m sure many other companies will follow.  Particularly because the technology adds little, if any, to the cost of dyeing the fabric.  In addition, it is possible to do things such as print a different design on each side of a single piece of cloth, making for great possibilities in reversible draperies and other applications.

Imagine if all the plastic water bottles in the world (around 200 billion a year) were recycled into polyester fabric, and then dyed using Air Dye technology?   What a great step forward that would be.

Here is your Friday Wrap-up of great stuff on the web this week.

Image via Dezeen

Emeco sure got my attention with this great shot of their new 111 Navy Chair, which is made from the 111 Coca-Cola bottles worth of PET. (DeZeen)

Speaking of PET, you can pop over to HomePortfolio.com to read my post on carpeting made from recycled PET. (HomePortfolio)

I really love these beautiful, eco-friendly deck chairs from Gallant & Jones.  Definite must have for Summer lounging! (design*sponge)

Here’s an interesting list of 8 Bathroom Items to Repurpose Around the House.  A medicine cabinet into a bar? (reNest)

Are you an interior designer?  Then you, or the firm you work for, probably have a lot of outdated samples lying around.  Why not help out a student and donate them to Save a Sample? (reNest)

A fun table made of salvaged wood, with a little slice of color. (inhabitat)

If you love cardboard furniture, and even if you don’t, you should see this post on Treehugger – if only for the huge cardboard Leaning Tower of Pisa. (Treehugger)

Here’s a story about Christie’s upcoming Green Auction.  Everything from an original painting by Damien Hirst to a day on a movie set with Hugh Jackman will be up for bid, all to benefit several environmental charities. (The Huffington Post)

Wishing you a happy Easter weekend!

From time to time I run across some innovative or creative ways to lesson the overall impact of all this sampling, and I though I would share a couple of those ideas here:

Primer from Tricycle, Inc. on Vimeo.

Product development company Tricycle tackled this problem by creating Tryk, a process for high resolution, color accurate flat samples, to be used for preliminary design work.  This system cuts down enormously on the amount of material and space needed for samples by carpet companies such as Tandus, Interface, and Shaw.  In the initial design stage, these samples can be used for color and pattern, and can be applied easily to mood boards.  Later in the design stage, an actual sample of the desired carpet can be requested for final approval.

Here is a different way of approaching the sampling problem.  The other day my sales rep for The Woven Company stopped by with their new sample set.  While their actual format hasn’t changed, the box definitely has.  And what a great sample box it is!   Not only is this woven grass container attractive to look at and easy to use, it has the potential for a truly useful life long after The Woven Company has moved on to other things.  A picnic basket, a child’s overnight case, perhaps a place to store yarn for knitting?  I have half a mind to call them up and ask if I could buy a few more!

When the rep dropped it off, it really got me to thinking about how wasteful all those sleek, logo encrusted sample kits manufacturers regularly send me are.  Once the product line is no longer valid, what do I do with the container, much less the actual samples?  I’ve donated many to local design schools, but they will still wind up in the landfill someday.  Wouldn’t it be nice if all these samples came in something useful?

If you have any ideas for great ways manufacturers could provide samples to lessen their impact, or another fun sample container idea, please feel free to share it in the comments below!

via flor.com

This is such a fun idea, it’s a wonder FLOR didn’t think of it sooner.

Now’s your chance to create the FLOR you’ve always dreamed of.

Let your imagination run wild – with FLOR’s design system of 19.7-inch squares the options are limitless. All you have to do is choose your FLOR and let the designing begin. Mix and match colors, patterns and textures to create a rug, runner or wall-to-wall design that fits your décor and your personality. Who knows, you may just get your FLOR design for free or see it on FLOR.com.

The designing on takes place using their online design tools.  Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CT Monday, December 7, 2009, so you don’t have a lot of time!  Click here for contest details.

And hey – if your design gets picked PLEASE let us know!  We’ll be sure to post all about it here!

According to Tandus, the company hasn’t sent manufacturing waste to a landfill since 1994.  Add all the carpet they take back through their Infinity Initiative to that, and as of now they have diverted over 155,000,000 pounds of carpet from landfills.  So where does all that carpet go?

Tandus collects used and reclaimed carpet from any manufacturer and then takes it to a sorting facility.  Then they take the raw carpet and chop it up into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually pelletizing it.  From there it is heated, extruded and processed into their 100% recycled content ER3 backing material.  Add a lovely carpet face material to the top and Tandus has something to brag about!

The use of recycled materials as backing material doesn’t stop there.  At Greenbuild 2009 they were showing their Ethos modular carpet backing, which is made from the film used on shatterproof glass.  Composed of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), the film had no commercially viable use after the end of it’s useful life, until Tandus found its calling during research into carpet backing alternatives.

To find out more about the sustainability initiatives at Tandus, click here.