Wednesday, May 13, 2026 from Floor Covering Weekly

How lifecycle thinking is reshaping flooring
By Kirk Hamlet

The question of what happens to a floor when it’s time to replace it isn’t a peripheral concern anymore. It is built into the production process from the start. Lifecycle analysis, circular practices and take-back programs are moving the needle of modern flooring development, driven by a combination of regulations, evolving consumer expectations and the practical economics of reducing waste.

Circular by Design

For Tarkett North America, lifecycle thinking has been paired with product development since 2010, when the company began adjusting its portfolio to Cradle to Cradle principles. Now, every product is evaluated across material health, circularity, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness. By 2030, the company plans to source at least 30 percent of raw materials from recycled resources.

In pursuit of this, the company’s ReStart take-back and recycling program has diverted more than 129,000 tons of global flooring waste from landfills since its launch. In 2025, the company established a closed-loop recycling process that turns post-use ethos carpet tile backing into new ethos backing.

“Lifecycle analysis relies on transparency. Corporate and product transparency are fundamental to our values at Tarkett and the way we do business. Third-party assessments and verifications ensure that our partners and customers have access to detailed information about the materials and processes behind our products, as well as our corporate practices,” noted Jay Henry, senior director of innovation and sustainability at Tarkett North America.

Shaw Industries has been running lifecycle assessments since 2004, using the data to identify where reductions are achievable, and to guide consumers concerned with climate impact towards eco-friendly decisions. For a typical carpet tile, 60 percent of the carbon footprint traces to raw materials, 20 percent to manufacturing and the remaining 20 percent to transportation, maintenance and end of use.

And, based on this data, said Candi Hampton, vice president of global sustainability at Shaw Industries, “We are able to strategically work to minimize product environmental impact by using low carbon bio-based materials and recycled content to replace virgin raw material.”

Almost 90 percent of the products Shaw manufactures carry Cradle to Cradle certification, assessed across material health, clean air and climate protection, product circularity, water and soil stewardship and social fairness. COREtec Soft Step features an attached underlayment made with more than 95 percent recycled PET. Anderson Tuftex’s ANSO HP PET carpet styles are made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled fiber, equivalent to roughly 76 recycled plastic bottles per square yard. This trend continues across all Shaw brands and categories, including Philadelphia Commerical, Patcraft and Shaw Contract.

Mohawk’s chief sustainability officer Malisa Maynard explained, “Lifecycle thinking is embedded in how we approach every product design at Mohawk — from the recycled content we create for EverStrand carpet to the engineered cores made from reclaimed wood fiber in our RevWood flooring.”

She added, “Our EverStrand carpet is responsible for diverting as many as 6 billion PET bottles from the landfill each year. We have developed these recycling technologies and processes into our manufacturing lines where they are now fully integrated into our business.”

The Cost of Getting There

The companies most committed to circular design are also most candid about what it costs. Building the infrastructure for circular supply chains demands a committed investment, and the returns rarely satisfy short-term financial goals.

“One of the challenges is that circularity can’t be accomplished in a vacuum. Adjusting our habits and behaviors to move from a linear economy to a circular one requires that businesses work together, sometimes across industries, to take back post-use material instead of sending it to a landfill, and then to find uses for that material when we get it back. The problem is much bigger than any one of us, so solving it takes collaboration and creativity. And those things take time and financial investment,” Henry said.
Julian Dossche, co-founder and president of International Flooring Company (IFC), echoed that sentiment and framed the investment as one that is strategically necessary rather than optional.

“The most significant challenge is the cost of building the infrastructure. Initial investments in circular supply chains are substantial, and the returns often don’t align neatly with short-term financial cycles. That said, we believe the mandate is clear: any sustainability initiative must create genuine value for the end user, or it won’t survive,” Dossche shared.

Brands are focused on progressing lifecycle analysis and circular design from competitive differentiators toward baseline expectations. Regulatory pressure is tightening in key markets, and a younger generation of consumers are carrying different expectations into purchasing decisions.

Mohawk’s goal, said Maynard, is making sustainable choices simpler and more accessible, and that includes continuing to develop the end-of-life infrastructure through programs like ReCover to make a truly circular experience possible.

IFC sees lifecycle and circular design moving from a differentiator to a baseline expectation. “Especially as younger consumers come into purchasing power and as regulations tighten globally,” Dossche said. “Our intent is to continue building supplier relationships in regions where circular investment is accelerating, and to integrate lifecycle criteria earlier in the product development process rather than treating it as an end-of-line consideration. We’re aiming to be ahead of the demand curve, not responding to it.”

For Tim Hanno, vice president of sales at LICO, the premise is simpler but straightforward — ecological goals must coincide with economic ones. Hanno mentioned that, in a world of finite resources, circular thinking will become increasingly essential and a structural reality the industry is moving toward whether individual companies lead or follow.