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It’s flooring—and then some. Made for More.
At Interface, sustainability is at the core of who we are, so we carefully consider the materials we use in our products. We live in an industrial system where most materials are still made in ways that negatively impact our planet and our health. We do not accept that running a profitable company has to have these impacts. Instead, we are committed to showing the world a better way to do business.
We are often asked why we continue to use PVC plastic in our modular flooring since the potential negative impacts of this material’s life cycle have been widely publicized.
The answer boils down to a few key things:
The healthiest plastic is the one you don’t use.
Innovation in product design and use of recycled materials has allowed Interface to dramatically reduce the amount of virgin plastic in our products, including a more than 60% reduction in the use of PVC in our carpet tile and the introduction of non-vinyl, bio-based alternatives like our CQuest™Bio backing. With a long-standing screening process in place – in addition to a lack of exposure pathways – the way we manage our recycled PVC is preferable to virgin plastics.
Vinyl backed carpet tile is the most recyclable flooring.
In an era where the vast majority of flooring ends up in a landfill or an incinerator, Interface has built a true closed loop system for vinyl flooring.
Old carpet tile backing and our Sound Choice™ LVT products can be recycled through ReEntry™ to feed our 3rd party verified closed loop production system and make CQuest™GB backing. This system allows us to safely make new carpet tile backing from old, avoiding the life cycle issues traditionally associated with the production and end-of-life of PVC and other plastics.
All PVC is not created equal.
All PVC used by Interface in our carpet tile and resilient flooring is either 100% recycled (as in our CQuest™GB backing) or complies with the Green Star PVC Best Practice Guidelines.
We adopted these independent guidelines developed in Australia because PVC use continues to grow despite efforts like Red Lists, making it vitally important that specifiers have a way to ask for better PVC. Compliance with this standard eliminates the traditional concerns about the manufacture of PVC, harmful additives like heavy metal stabilizers and phthalate plasticizers, and end of life.
While some products claim to be “PVC Free,” as if that alone makes a product healthy and sustainable, our system assesses and optimizes all materials (including PVC plastic) for their contribution to green chemistry, the circular economy, and the creation of a climate fit for life.
Green Star
Green Star audits manufacturing facilities for compliance, and allows products that meet the guidelines to contribute to a credit. All Interface LVT and Interface GlasBac™ and CQuest™GB carpet backings meet the Green Star Best Practice Guidelines.
No material is without its trade-offs, however. Meeting the Green Star guidelines does not mean PVC is 100% sustainable. We took the unusual step of applying an Australian standard to our global supply chain because it is the only independent, comprehensive standard for best practice PVC that exists in the world today, and we encourage others to do the same.
As we continue the push toward using only recycled or bio-based inputs, we always strive to ensure that today’s materials and practices are held to the highest standards available.
The Climate Take Back Plan
Through our commitment to achieving Climate Take Back™, we strive to:
- Eliminate chemistries of concern from our products
- Eliminate the use of virgin raw materials by making all our products from recycled and bio-based materials
- Close the loop by being responsible for our products at the end of their life
- Shift the carbon footprint of our products