Underwear company finds novel way to make carpets

The Nudea underwear brand has launched its “bra-cycle” scheme to recycle underwear, where material from bras is used to make carpet backing.

Every year, approximately 19 million bras are thrown away at landfill sites. Unlike most garments, there is no market for second hand underwear and charity shops rarely accept it. Over time, a bra that has been worn and washed frequently loses functionality and is thrown away.

To limit waste, Nudea is working with a recycling company to extract textiles and wire to recycle bras. Fibres are made into a pelletised material that is used in the production of many products, including carpet backing. The wire from the bras is shredded and makes washers, bolts, and nuts.

The CEO of Nudea, Priya Downes, said:

“There’s no denying the fact that underwear is one of the most polluting categories in the fashion industry, so we wanted to address this by offering a recycling scheme.”

Nudea is promoting its recycling scheme through humorous social media posts. The company is encouraging customers to think “one in, one out.” If they recycle their old bra, they receive a 20% discount on a new one.

Carpets in North Wales and Chester homes often contain recycled materials, but few will realise that they may be walking on what had once been underwear. Like Nudea, carpet manufacturers are committed to more sustainable business practices. There are recycling schemes in Cheshire and North Wales that extract materials from worn carpets to make raw materials for other products.

What are the best rooms for carpet in your home?

When it comes to picking floor surfaces for a home, people often think that the easiest solution is to have the same material in every room. In the short term that is true, but in the longer run, issues of cleaning and damage could make it an irritation.

Carpeting is a popular type of home flooring, but it is not one always suitable for every room. These are the areas where carpet tends to work best:

Bedrooms

Carpeting is an ideal floor choice for bedrooms, because it is by far the softest underfoot. This is important in a part of the home where you will often be walking about barefoot.

Carpets are also one of the most effective types of flooring for retaining heat, which again makes them a good option for bedrooms, particularly in northern areas of the UK like Chester that are prone to colder weather.

One of the biggest problems that carpets present is that they can become worn and frayed by people constantly walking on them in shoes or boots. However this is unlikely to be a major issue in a bedroom.

The living room

The living room is the home’s central hub of activity, as the name suggests. Therefore you may think that all of that footfall would make carpets a bad choice of flooring, but it isn’t quite that simple.

Many people do avoid carpets in their living rooms, because of worries about wear and tear and dirt as well as damage by pets’ claws, but this can be mitigated by choosing a high quality, dark-coloured carpet.

Carpeting offers real benefits to a living room space. As mentioned above it helps to keep the warm in, creating a cosy feel for this important room.

The landing and stairs

Carpeting tends not to the best choice for the downstairs hallway, because visitors and family members walking in and out will cause it to wear and pick up grime. It will work well for the upstairs landing between bedrooms though, where again it will provide a gentle and warm surface to walk on without shoes.

Carpet can also be a good flooring option for stairs, because it is less likely to lead to slips and falls than polished wood or vinyl.

In conclusion, these are the rooms where carpeting will work well, whereas it should be avoided when flooring kitchens and bathrooms. Speak to an experienced and reputable professional for more information.

Carpets left to fade in Turkey sun

Every summer in Döşemealtı, a Mediterranean coastal province in Antalya, Turkey, second-hand carpets are laid in fields so that the colours will fade to pastel colours under the sweltering summer sun. The carpets are usually left out in July, but due to unusually hot weather, carpet laying started in May this year.

Speaking to Hurriyet Daily News, carpet maker Can Börekçi said:

“We keep carpets in the sun for days to get rid of everything except organic root dye and wool.”

After the colours have faded, Börekçi repairs them ready for sale. The carpets are collected from a wide area, and thousands of them are laid in a large area of land known by locals as the “carpet fields”. Faded Turkish carpets are highly sort after and can cost £2,000 or more.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected carpet sales due to travel restrictions on buyers coming to Turkey. In the 2000s, about 50,000 carpets were put in the fields, but this has reduced to around 15,000.

Most people with carpets in Chester and North Wales homes prefer unfaded ones. A quality carpet will last a long time, and modern dyes are fade resistant so that colours remain vibrant.

Anyone that wants faded carpets is advised not to leave their carpets out in the garden, as the UK’s sunlight is not hot enough to fade colours, and the high rainfall the country experiences will damage the carpet. Pastel shade carpets are available for those who don’t want deeper coloured carpets.

Designer makes furniture from waste carpets

Riccardo Cenedella, an Italian designer, has released a one-of-a-kind tables, stools and lamps made from carpet waste.

Many thousands of carpets are thrown away each year when they become worn, thin or stained. Many are disposed of at landfill sites. Some councils and carpet retailers are concerned about this issue and will take old carpets away from homes and commercial properties and send them to specialist carpet recycling firms that use material from the carpets for use in other products.

Cenedella, however, collects old carpets and extracts material from them to form what he calls “Carpet Matter”. He uses this material to make unique furniture and lamps. His carpet matter lamp features curved LED light strips that connect two purple Carpet Matter round bases.

The Carpet Matter stool has a flat disc attached to a round base. The stool can also be used as a small table. Larger tables are like a conventional table, featuring four stout legs. Cenedella wants to develop chairs, shelves and other furniture made from recycled carpets in the future. Carpet Matter could also be used to make jars, pots, trays and much more.

In the future, rooms with carpets in Chester, Wrexham and North Wales could have furniture, accessories and fittings made entirely from old carpets. This is an example of the circular economy, where items in a home or office are not thrown away but recycled to make other useful products. This reduces the amount of toxic waste that is dumped into the environment.

Carpets become rising American design trend

The USA is experiencing a renewed trend for carpets in interior design.

In the past, millennials in America rejected carpets in favour of hard surface floors that are easier to maintain. Many landlords ripped out carpets when tenants moved out, as they believed that carpeted apartments were less popular and made it more difficult to attract new tenants.

According to Los Angeles designer Kerry Vasquez, however, tastes are changing. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, she said that more of her clients are asking for carpets. The most popular carpets are low-pile, single-colour ones in earthy shades. Her clients find that carpets add texture and warmth to a home.

Carpets deteriorate unless they are regularly cleaned. This makes a carpet seem less practical than wood or laminate flooring, but to some Americans, a carpeted home is regarded as a status symbol that demonstrates the homeowner has the money to pay someone to keep their carpets well maintained. Though quality carpets are hardwearing, many like to replace their carpets every few years with a new colours one to refresh the designs of their homes.

Though some households prefer hard flooring in Chester and North Wales properties, carpets remain popular. Consumers like the wide range of carpet colours and patterns that are available. Those who don’t want to pay someone for carpet maintenance can maintain them with regular vacuuming, but it is recommend that at least once a year, the carpets should be deep cleaned by a professional carpet cleaning service.