The world’s first soy carpet has been produced by an Australian company, Customweave. Frank Ricco, the developer of a luxury line of rugs and carpets, describes the texture as a combination of cashmere, velvet and alpaca. Like most other products made with soy, the fiber comes from the “waste” left after processing soy beans. China produces about 14 million tonnes of soy beans a year. Once the soy meal and oil is extracted, the leftover parts of the plant have traditionally been fed to farm animals or sent to landfill.

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Wool carpeting is excellent: it’s durable, stain resistant, and completely biodegradable. It has a high initial cost, but the quality of the material justifies the investment.

Nature’s Carpet offers all wool carpets. They only buy wool clipped from sheep raised where no herbicides or pesticides are used. The fiber is tested regularly for purity. The wool is washed, spun and made into carpet without the use of any synthetic chemicals. No moth proofing is used.

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These accents rugs are made with 100% Tibetan wool. The wool is said to be extra soft due to lanolin that Tibetan sheep produce to stay warm, and is hand-knotted with a Tibetan weave. Available from Bed, Bath and Beyond for $59.99-$199.

Lees Carpets is introducing a new line of eco-friendly carpets called 2Faced, which were recently chosen as product of the month by Architectural Record. 2Faced carpets are tufted in such as way that they appear to change colors, depending on your perspective (see photo above).

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This Kona rug from Crate & Barrel is made from links of coconut wood (palmwood) and is harvested from palms that no longer bear fruit. The price ranges from $49 to $599.

They also have other sustainable jute and sisal rugs. Thanks to Treehugger for the heads up.

Earthweave is wool carpeting constructed entirely of natural materials.

The wool is raw and naturally pigmented. It is held in place with hemp or cotton (not the usual polyproylene). No chemical bonds, dyes and other agents are used.

The backings of carpets are usually the worst kind of air quality offenders. Earthweave backing is made from jute, and is held in place using a natural rubber-based adhesive.

Prices range around $36-41 per square yard.

Home Page: Earthweave

Available from: Straw Sticks & Bricks or Ylana’s Market

These rugs are 95% virgin wool (a renewable resource), and reportedly very durable and colorfast. They are handwoven using flat braids by Capel in North Carolina. The cost is $80 to $570. They are available in nine colors and seven different sizes.

Capel also makes other carpets woven from renewable material.

Available from: L.L. Bean

Lead from: Apartment Therapy

“Interface FLOR” carpet tiles are made from renewable materials that can recycled easily.

They are also built to be modular: if an accident happens, you can clean them in the sink put them back on the floor. They are held down by “low tack” adhesive dots. You can also create new designs by rearranging the tiles.

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