Shaw to make more carpet from recycled PET

Shaw Industries Group Inc. plans to spend tens of millions of dollars at a South Carolina carpet fiber plant to increase the use of fiber from recycled plastics.

The world's largest carpet maker, based in Dalton, Ga., is planning new polyester extrusion operations that will include the use of recycled PET beverage containers. The company also will add nylon fiber capacity.

Production is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter at the Lexington County, S.C., plant.

Shaw sources its recycled plastic from the Clear Path Recycling facility in Fayetteville, N.C., a joint venture between Shaw and DAK Americas LLC that reprocesses 3 billion PET containers annually.

Fiber made from PET bottles is used in Shaw's ClearTouch residential carpeting, the company said.

The $45 million project will create more than 50 new jobs at the facility, which already employs 290, the company said. Across South Carolina, Shaw has seven plants and more than 1,500 workers.

“By continuing to invest in our people, processes and products, Shaw is able to provide a diverse product mix, innovative design and the greatest quality and service to our customers,” CEO Vance Bell said in a statement.

Shaw is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a publicly traded conglomerate headed by Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway also counts such well-known brands as Dairy Queen, Geico and Fruit of the Loom among its vast holdings, along with Wickliffe, Ohio-based Lubrizol Corp., a specialty chemicals company that's a big player in the thermoplastic polyurethane business.

Clear Path Recycling reprocesses PET bottles into flake that's then used as feedstock by Shaw as well as DAK Americas, which is the largest polyester staple fiber producer and second largest PET resin producer in the Americas.

News of the investment comes after Shaw opened a new $20 million carpet recycling facility in Ringgold, Ga., at a former rug distribution center earlier, this year. Called Evergreen Ringgold, the site is replacing a recycling facility in Augusta, Ga., with what the company calls “new technology that better meets current and future market needs.”

Evergreen Ringgold started up in May and is processing nylon and polyester fibers, the company said. Evergreen Augusta is slated to stop operations Sept. 1.