MillikenandCo., Spartanburg, S.C., was awarded the Best Industry Program Award from the Department
of Health and Environmental Control’s (DHEC) Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling at the
1998 Recycling awards, held recently in Columbia, S.C.Commissioner of South Carolina DHEC Doug
Bryant presented the award. Milliken was honored for the adoption of a formal environmental policy
in 1990 that established a goal of zero waste. A strong commitment to this goal has resulted in
less than 5 percent of Milliken’s total domestic waste being sent to landfills. Milliken has worked
with customers, suppliers and DHEC to see that 95 percent of its waste goes to applications such as
reuse or recycling. In 1998, 43 of Milliken’s 55 domestic locations sent zero waste to
landfills.The company’s Earth Square carpet process renews and restyles old carpet, allowing re-use
by the customer, and eliminates tons of old carpet to landfills. The revolutionary process earned
the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) first Evergreen Award for sustainable development
in 1998. (See “Fiber World News,” ATI
November 1998.)
March 1999
