Technofile : New rugs for old

Construction on the world’s first commercial plant for recycling nylon
carpets will start in a few weeks’ time. Sited in Augusta, Georgia, the plant
will turn 90 000 metric tonnes of waste carpet each year into caprolactam, a
monomer that can be reconverted into nylon. “As far as we know, it will be the
first carpet recycling plant in the world,” says a spokesman for Augusta-based
DSM Chemicals, which developed the process with AlliedSignal of Morristown, New
Jersey.