3.08.2007 - 07:00pm ET

(CSRwire) ORLANDO, FL - March 8, 2007 - The Society of Plastics Engineers today recognized InterfaceFABRIC, Inc., a pioneer in using increasingly sustainable technologies, with its "New Technologies in Renewables" award for the company’s biobased fabric composting project. The award was presented at the Society of Plastics Engineers' conference in Orlando, FL, and was accepted on InterfaceFABRIC’s behalf by Bill Foley, director of new business development. InterfaceFABRIC makes panel and upholstery fabrics for commercial interiors, primarily marketing to original equipment manufacturers.

"InterfaceFABRIC is committed to 'closing the loop' - or keeping materials in the technical loop -- by recycling through our fabric reclamation program, ReSKU®," explained Mr. Foley. "Using biobased materials - in this case, fiber extruded from polylactic acid, or PLA - requires new thinking to return the materials to the carbon cycle."

InterfaceFABRIC teamed up with Michigan State University Extension and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, as well as customer Herman Miller, Inc. and Shady Side Farm in Holland, Michigan, to experiment with a composting project for one of the company’s biobased Terratex® fabrics. While PLA is biobased, early attempts by others to biodegrade the polymer had not been successful.

By introducing fabric scraps to a composting process at Shady Side Farm that includes waste sawdust, straw, poultry manure and a pilot-scale rotary drum compost vessel, the project team was able to experiment with the time, temperature, moisture, pH, aeration, odor, carbon and nitrogen metabolism required to achieve complete degradation of the polymer. Key to the process was keeping the compost clear of any toxic chemicals via InterfaceFABRIC’s Dye and Chemical Protocol during the yarn handling stage and throughout the manufacturing process. Recently proven to be replicated at the commercial scale, the results show the compost to be suitable as a high quality soil amendment that can be sold to local landscape companies.

InterfaceFABRIC is a division of Interface, Inc., an Atlanta-based leader in industrial ecology whose pursuit of Mission Zero™ -- eliminating any negative impact it may have on the environment by 2020 - means that product and process will come from an increasingly sustainable manufacturing environment. InterfaceFABRIC supplies the contract interiors market with a variety of textile solutions including the Terratex® brand environmental fabrics made from 100% post-consumer recycled polyester or 100% biobased fabrics made from polylactic acid (PLA), which were recognized by Environmental Building News as one of the "Top 10 Green Products of the Year" in 2005. ReSKU is InterfaceFABRIC’s pioneering textile reclamation program.

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