Shaw Industries to convert carpet waste into energy

<p>A process that will convert carpet manufacturing waste into steam energy will save the Shaw Industries' plant here up to $2.5 million a year in fuel costs while greatly reducing the load going into a local landfill, officials said Thursday.</p><p>Siemens Building Technologies Inc. said it will design a system to use by-products of flooring manufacturing _ carpet trimmings, seam waste and wood flour _ to make gas that will fire a boiler and produce more than 50,000 pounds of steam per hour.</p><p>Shaw will use the steam in its manufacturing operations.</p><p>The process will involve heating the flooring waste to produce synthetic gas and a small amount of ash, said Clark Wiedetz, energy business development manager for Siemens in Atlanta.</p><p>Wiedetz said it will result in cleaner emissions than burning fuel oil and will give Shaw a fixed energy price for its Dalton plant.</p><p>"With the fluctuation of oil and gas prices, that could be a huge competitive advantage in a price-sensitive industry," he said.</p><p>Bill Barron, Shaw vice president of manufacturing, said the project annually will convert 16,000 tons of post-manufacturing and post-consumer carpet waste and 6,000 tons of wood flour, which is sawdust left from making laminate flooring.</p><p>The process will virtually eliminate the post-manufacturing material destined for the Dalton landfill, Barron said.</p><p>According to Bob Peoples, executive director of the Carpet and Rug Institute, about 5 billion pounds of post-consumer and post-manufacturing carpet will be hauled to landfills in the United States in 2004.</p><p>Shaw, which is headquartered in Dalton, is a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. and produces and sells carpets, rugs, ceramic hardwood and laminate flooring for residential and commercial applications worldwide.</p><p>Siemens Building Technologies, based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., is one of 14 Siemens operating companies in the United States. It has 8,000 employees working from more than 100 locations.</p>