LAS VEGAS — A number of industry suppliers at this year’s HD Expo—held last week at Mandalay Bay Casino—were celebrating both new products and new innovations in sustainability. Here are a few notable developments from the trade show floor.
Summit International Flooring & Object Carpet
In January, German carpeting company Object Carpet and its American partner, Summit International Flooring, launched the NEOO carpet, made from a single type of polyester so that it can, in theory, be recycled endlessly. At their booth at HD Expo, the partners premiered the next step in the concept—the Mediterraneo carpet, for both indoor and outdoor use.
The process—developed with Netherlands-based recycling company Niaga (“Again” spelled backwards)—turns sorted and cleaned plastic waste into polyester chips that are then turned into filament fibers for weaving into carpets. “We have a 100 percent mono-material carpet,” said Object Carpet owner Daniel Butz. “The top is polyester, the back is polyester and in between is polyester.” (Traditional floor textiles can be a combination of as many as 30 different materials, the company said in its literature.) Summit International Flooring President David Numark added that eliminating binders and adhesives makes the product completely recyclable.
The yarns of the polyester carpet are dyed using a “solution-dyed” method that adds pigments while the fibers are still in a liquid state so that no water or gas is needed. The company claims the process can save up to 95 percent of the energy needed for conventional carpet production.
NEOO, Butz said, is just the starting point for the concept. “We’ll have, in the next two to three months, another 15 products change to the new technology.” Ultimately, Numark expects the process to create the same kind of value for old carpeting that scrap metal has traditionally held, making it less likely that owners will toss their carpet remnants.
Pavilion’s Sandcastle
Pavilion Furniture, part of Tuuci Worldwide, previewed its new Sandcastle Collection, set to officially launch next month. The collection is designed to evoke sandcastles along a coastline, with a range of height and scale. “So the shape is reminiscent of a sand bucket going in and pushing down,” said Jay Chapman, president of Pavilion Furniture, on the trade show floor.
The foundation of the largest table base uses counterweights made from water-resistant fabric filled with a 25-pound sandbag. The seat is available in five colors that complement standard aluminum frame finishes. An aluminum seat option is also available in standard aluminum frame finishes, and a molded foam option will also be available.
Nook
Nook has been renting out private pods to hotels for years, said Shaina Phillips, who handles operations for the company. Sponsors can pay event managers to decorate the pods with branding, but ultimately, the money goes everywhere except to the hotel. Instead, Phillips said the company is now looking to sell the pods to hotels outright, letting them offer semi-private meeting spaces for two people or a small closed-off work station for an individual in hallways or other public spaces.
Each unit can be plugged into a regular outlet, and can, in turn, provide outlets (including USB ports and Qi chargers) for users.
Valiryo Technologies
Spanish-based Valiryo Technologies displayed a full-body dryer that is meant to make towels unnecessary, completely drying a body in three minutes or less.
Maria Casado, the company’s U.S. and Canada sales manager, said the unit is meant to be installed in a shower and has an IP rating of 56, meaning it is protected from high-pressure water jets. “It has three different temperature settings and three different [air] speeds, so you just adjust it to the way you like,” she said. “And then it has a sensor that will remember the setting that you used last time.”
Casado said the device can lower a property’s laundry costs by using fewer towels at the property, and can reduce energy usage by about 65 percent.
Serta Simmons Bedding
The new Serta iComfortECO Hospitality mattress was on display at the Serta Simmons booth. Dennis Lackey, senior channel marketing manager for Serta Simmons Bedding, said the mattress was the company’s first to use an individually wrapped coil, instead of the typical continuous coil that they had used in the past.
Each queen mattress includes recycled plastics equivalent to more than 120 recycled plastic water bottles. “There's also an inch of what we call TerraFusion Memory foam that's in the bed that's basically made up of [30 percent] soy,” Lackey added. “And then the coil itself is … about 85 percent recycled steel.”
Belwith Keeler
Earlier this year, Belwith Keeler partnered with Monogram appliances to relaunch the Keeler Brass Company and develop a line of decorative handles for the stoves and other devices.
The Anthology Series lets customers select a knob, pull or post and customize various elements. “If you're going to do the Monogram appliance handles then you need a company like Keeler Brass, which is historically a high end luxury product, to go with it,” said Knikki Grantham, creative director for Belwith Keeler Decor Solutions (the parent company of Belwith Keeler and Keeler Brass Company).
When selecting pulls and handles, users can choose a bar and treatment (reeded, coined, knurled, leather wrapped or plain, Grantham said) for as many as 30,000 possible options. The Pebble Collection, meanwhile, has a smooth shape meant to feel like polished stones in nature.
Fil Doux Textiles
Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Fil Doux Textiles has added new colors to its Otratex collection, a line of completely biodegradable vinyls. “With our Otratex vinyls, we've always had browns and grays and leather-looking [colors],” Robin Love, CEO of Fil Doux Textiles, said on the show floor. “But we're getting more and more requests for pops of color.” The team started doing research on the forecasted colors for 2024 and patterned its new additions after those colors—greens, corals and blues, Love said.
Love said the Otratex vinyl biodegrades in landfills over 25 years. The company adds an enzyme during production that, when the vinyl is in a landfill and cut off from light and oxygen, will naturally begin degrading the material.
Ethnicraft
When Ethnicraft launched its Jack collection of tables and chairs, the line used rosewood and could not be sold in the U.S. as the material is considered an endangered species. The company is now using mahogany wood for the pieces and has brought the line stateside, according to Communications Manager Anne-Marie Earl.
The company’s Spindle furniture collection, meanwhile, uses reclaimed teak salvaged from buildings and structures in Indonesia. And the new Bricks wall art is made from recycled wood and leftover pieces from furniture production, so that no two pieces of art are alike, Earl said. “We don't like to waste the wood so we've found a new reason and a new purpose for it.” Each Bricks piece, she added, can be paired with other pieces to make “a really big grand statement.”