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Mohawk Reduces Eco-footprint

Floor Covering Weekly | 32 October 15/22, 2007 | Tanja Kern

In an effort to help the environment and emphasize its role as a green manufacturer, Mohawk Ceramics reports it has dramatically reduced the environmental impact of its ceramic tile manufacturing while boosting the efficiency with which the tile is produced and raw materials are used.

Ninety-seven percent of Mohawk's ceramic tile SKUs contain some recycled waste byproducts from both internal and external manufacturing processes, the company said. Non-recycled tile materials are extracted from abundant and naturally occurring clay, shale and other rock-like materials. Maximum possible reuse of recycled materials keeps the use of virgin raw materials to a minimum. Currently the recycled material make-up is between 45 percent and 64 percent in floor tile; 31 percents and 44 percent in wall tile; and 7 percent to 22 percent in mosaics.

Last year more than 197 million pounds of waste material from another manufacturing process and more than 55 million pounds of wate-fired tile were recycled into tile products manufactured at Mohawk plants. When waste-fired tile can't be utilized in Mohawk processes, it becomes available for state-approved reuse projects.

Upgrading manufacturing processes has also improved efficiency. "All of Mohawk's manufacturing plants recover and recycle waste-water to the maximum extent possible," said Mohawk spokesman Wayne Bowman. "In fact, four facilities do not discharge even one drop of process wastewater." Mohawk recovered and reused more than 64 million gallons of process wastewater in 2006.

Over the last two years, Mohawk also upgraded to newer fuel-efficient equipment, decreased downtime with kiln loading and turned off burners. The result: Mohawk was able to save enough natural gas to fuel more than 6,000 homes for an entire year and electricity to service more than 1,700 homes.

Mohawk Ceramic's environmental initiatives are part of Mohawk Greenworks, designed to help people understand how much effort goes into being environmentally proactive and how that impacts every level of the company. For more information, visit greenworksblog.com.