What's a "Pop Bottle" Carpet?

When I first felt a rug from Karastan’s EverStrand line, I would have put money on the fact that it was made of wool. I had been in the area rug industry for almost my entire life, and was absolutely shocked to learn that the rug was not wool, and actually made from recycled bottles. This was close to ten years ago, and ever since, I’ve been thrilled to educate shoppers about this miracle fiber.

HOW IT’S MADE:

In essence, the process is quite simple:

• Bottles are sorted by type of plastic and color.  (Only the clear bottles made from P.E.T. are used.)
• Bottles are crushed into chips. 
• The chips are thoroughly cleaned.
• The chips are extruded into fiber and spun into yarn. 

To see the process from bottle to rug in action, you can check out this short video:



The recycled bottles are made of Polyethylene Terephthalate (P.E.T. for short) which is in the polyester family. P.E.T. is an ideal option for area rug production because it is naturally clear, has a high melting point, is abrasion resistant, and is inherently strong.

My favorite part about this fiber is that it was originally engineered with sustainability in mind. Not only are these rugs made from recycled bottles, the polyester can be recycled over and over which means less rugs end up in landfills. Mohawk Industries, the parent company of Karastan, reclaims more than 3 billion plastic bottles from landfill per year to produce wall-to-wall carpeting and area rugs. 

Two of our collections from Karastan are made of EverStrand: Spice Market and Expressions by Scott Living.