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The purpose of this paper is to apply the goals and processes of reverse logistics related to disposal and renewal to an industry example, in this case, the tufted carpet manufacturing industry. With an industry-wide coalition, the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), the carpet industry offers lessons for other industries on how to create new products from waste, how to develop systems to process this waste, how to encourage the development of infrastructure for reprocessing and how to remove barriers to recovery. A major part of the US floor covering cluster is headquartered around Dalton, Georgia. The industry has formed a coalition to divert manufactured carpet from landfills and find other uses for used carpet. This industry-wide coalition, known as the Carpet America Recovery Effort, offers many lessons for other industries on creating new products from waste, developing systems to process this waste, encouraging the development of infrastructure for reprocessing and removing barriers to recovery.

Academics have proposed several frameworks for examining reverse logistics. In this study, the framework developed by de Brito and Dekker (2004) is utilized because it focuses on essential forces in reverse logistics, asking four simple questions: Why? What? How? and Who? To this list, is added a question: Where? This modified framework is applied to the carpet manufacturing industry, focusing on post-consumer carpet.

The carpet industry is becoming a model for developing renewal supply chains that take waste products and create new ones. Although disposal remains the largest part of the end-of-use supply chain for carpet, this is changing, though not rapidly enough to suit the industry.

This case focuses on what the industry is currently doing and on the impediments it has encountered in developing these chains. Renewal chains may well dominate the future of reverse logistics in the industry, but much work remains. The paper concludes with a discussion and areas for future research.

A large amount of post‐consumer carpet waste is discarded into landfills. The need to recycle this waste is increasing due to the lack of available landfill spaces in many parts of the world, environmental concerns, and resource conservation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of this waste for a low‐cost, high‐volume application.

Fibers from carpet waste have been successfully used as reinforcement in concrete, typically at 0.1‐1 per cent volume fraction (fractions by weight are even lower), for enhanced toughness. In this study, lightweight cementitious composites were fabricated that were reinforced with recycled carpet fibers at up to 20 per cent fiber to cement weight ratios. Flexural, toughness, and impact properties of the lightweight cementitious composites were characterized.

The density of the composites decreases with the increase of fiber content. In the three‐point bending test, lightweight cementitious composites exhibited a ductile behavior, and the flexural strength increases with the density of the composites. The energy absorption measured by the drop weight impact test was not very sensitive to the material parameters due to the total absorption of the impact energy by the specimens.

The density of the lightweight composites ranges from 0.7 to 1.0 g/cm³, which was about 30‐40 per cent of the density of typical concrete. Besides being moisture and termite resistant, the lightweight composites were very tough and could be cut and fastened with ordinary tools and nails. The lightweight composites are suitable for applications such as underlayment and wall panels for buildings, as well as for outdoor structures.

This case presents turnaround alternatives for a UK-based company, Carpets International (CI), a manufacturer focused on woven carpets and suffering from the ageing equipment and resulting product quality issues during the late 1990s. The case profiles CI’s position in the UK marketplace as well as highlights the growing international competition from Europe and Mexico. Comparisons between customer’s preferences for carpeting in the USA vs the UK are included. Additionally, the case introduces first-mover advantages in the application of innovational ideas applied to a mature industry in another country.

This case study was written by the CEO of the company as the lead author. The case is not disguised.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate strategic management/business policy classes.

Analyses the strategy of ingredient branding and its implications on the distribution channel members, in addition to its potential for aiding product introduction and adoption. Considers the benefits and the drawbacks for the supplier, manufacturer, retailer and consumer. Concludes that the appropriateness of ingredient branding depends on manufacturer‐supplier relationship, the need to differentiate the brand, and the ability to implement the new branding strategy.

What makes a company pursue the products, customers, market segments, and geographic areas that it does? The answer is the most important element of planning—it's the strategic heartbeat. The problem is that few executives can put their finger on this pulse.

This paper aims to prepare an associative thickener base on two polyacrylate-based copolymers, which can be used for digital printing of nylon carpet with enhanced performance.

An associative thickener was prepared by compounding two polyacrylate-based copolymers, cationic starch and polyacrylic acid; and mediated by polyethylene glycol and polyacrylamide crosslinker. The formulation of the associative thickener was optimized by using the orthogonal array testing strategy. The stability of the associative thickener was investigated by measuring effects of temperature, electrolytes, storage time and auxiliaries on viscosity. The associative thickener was compared with a commercial thickener by evaluating their performance in digital printing of nylon carpet.

The associative thickener provided same color strength and fastness in the printing of nylon carpet as the commercial one, but was more easily washed off for a better hand feeling of the printed carpet.

The prepared associative thickener can be applied for digital printing of nylon carpet.

The associative thickener can be facilely prepared from commercially available chemicals and suitable for digital printing of nylon carpet.

The purpose of this paper is to prepare and characterise various ink formulations for inkjet printing on nylon 66 carpet.

Various ink formulations were prepared using CI Acid Red 57, synthetic thickeners (BYK425 and BYK420), ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, isopropanol with auxiliaries. The inks were characterised for their rheological, wetting and storage stability properties. The inks were jetted using a Printos P16 drop‐on‐demand jet print‐head onto nylon 66 carpet materials. The printed images were characterised using an ImageXpert system.

It is found that the inks containing the synthetic thickeners at the optimum ratio give good printing and image properties, such as optical density, drop size, and depth of penetration into the substrate at pH 4‐5. The optimised ink formulation is found to have good storage stability.

The study focuses on ink formulations based on CI Acid Red 57. Ink formulations based on other colorants could also be studied in order to assess the applicability of the ink formulation system found for other colorants.

The ink formulations developed could find use in industrial scale printing.

Low cost ink formulations for printing of nylon carpets are novel.

The circumstances in which carpet is specified will vary from new premises where advice may be sought from consultants, to the replacement of floor coverings in a small part of old‐premises where the objective could be to ‘get something as good as the carpet that lasted 25 years that has just worn out’. The specifier may be an expert in the field, or a jack‐of‐all‐trades dependent on the local carpet supplier for advice and help. This article is directed towards the facilities manager with no expert knowledge and aims to provide him with the right questions. Some he will then be able to answer for himself: others he will be qualified to pass on to a resident expert or to an outside consultant.

Various ink formulations for inkjet printing on nylon66 carpet are prepared by using CI Acid Red 57, Natrosol and sodium alginate thickeners, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, and isopropanol with auxiliaries. The inks are characterised for their rheological, wetting, and storage stability properties. They were jetted by using a Printos P16 drop-on-demand jet print-head onto the nylon66 carpet materials, and the printed images were characterised by using an Image Xpert system.

The inks that contained the synthetic thickeners at the optimum ratio provide good printing and imaging properties, such as optical density, drop size, and depth of penetration into the substrate at pH 4-5. The optimised ink formulation is found to have good storage stability. The study has focused on ink formulations based on CI Acid Red 57. Ink formulations based on other colorants could also be studied in order to assess the applicability of the ink formulation system found for other colorants. The ink formulations developed could find both uses in industrial scale printing and low cost ink formulations for printing of nylon66 carpets.

Rising wool prices and technical advances in artificial fibres have provided Europe's man‐made textile producer's with booming business. But with prices yet to regain a healthy level after last year's production surplus, British manufacturers view with growing concern the Government's counter inflation measures. Roger Eglin reports.