HOW CARPETS BECOME CHAIRS
The Mill International’s carpets can be used three to four times depending on their thickness, before becoming threadbare and sent for recycling thereafter.
Workers first have to clear debris off the carpets and remove any metal attached to them.
Portions that are contaminated with food stains or water are disposed on site. Washing is not an option as the carpets are prone to mould and bacteria.
Those deemed suitable for recycling are then stored at The Mill International’s warehouse until it accumulates a sufficient quantity to send to Ravago.
There, carpets are fed into a shredder and processed into resin pellets.
These are sent on to the partner factory in China, which uses injection moulding to produce chairs en masse.
The Mill International hopes to receive its first batch of 300 recycled polypropylene chairs – made from an estimated 6 tonnes of resin pellets – by the first quarter of next year.
Each chair costs about US$35 to make, including shipping.
The plan is to include chair rental with The Mill’s usual offering of carpets for events.
But they are open to selling and according to Mr Cheung, some event organisers have already expressed interest in replacing their current inventory with The Mill’s carpet-origin chairs.
“There’s a huge buzz about making (event) booths from sustainable material … But flooring is something that we don’t see being a priority yet, which is honestly to us quite astounding, because flooring is something that aesthetically immediately elevates your event,” said Mr Cheung.
“A common way to solve carpets being unsustainable is that you don’t use carpets at all, and that’s what we realised there’s a trend now,” he added.
“But we are hoping more people know about this carpet recycling initiative, and that actually the carpets you use aren’t just simply going to be thrown away.”
