3rd PLATE Conference
September 18 – 20, 2019
Berlin, Germany
Nils F. Nissen
Melanie Jaeger-Erben (eds.)
Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin
Matheny, Rebekah; Epstein, Royce: Generation scrap: designing with
waste to transform the carpet industry . In: Nissen, Nils F.; Jaeger-Erben,
Melanie (Eds.): PLATE – Product Lifetimes And The Environment : Proceed-
ings, 3rd PLATE CONFERENCE, BERLIN, GERMANY, 18 – 20 September
2019. Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2021. pp. 533 – 539. ISBN
978-3-7983-3125-9 (online). https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-9253.
This article – except for quotes, fi gures and where otherwise noted – is
licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Generation Scrap:
Designing with Waste to Transform the Carpet Industry
Matheny, Rebekah(a); Epstein, Royce(b)
a) Assistant Professor, Department of Design, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
b) A&D Design Director, Mohawk Group, Dalton, Georgia
Keywords: Anthropocene; Circular Economy; GenZ; Material Design Pedagogy; Carpet
Manufacturing.
Abstract: This paper presents the explorative design process and proposed concepts from the project
“Generation Scrap” project at The Ohio State University’s Department of Design. This project is
positioned within an Interior Finish Materials and Methods course in partnership with the flooring and
carpet manufacturer Mohawk Group, part of the global Mohawk Industries. Building upon the work of
Mohawk’s A&D Design Director, this project first looks at “Scrap Culture,” understanding the world today
through the lens of the Anthropocene and Plastic Age. GenZ students explore innovative concepts to
mitigate waste, proposing new carpet designs that reduce, reuse, or recycle waste to create a more
sustainably built and natural environment. Mohawk’s extensive knowledge and advancements within
sustainable manufacturing and the circular economy provides students with resources to develop
innovative solutions for a realistic carpet design that would have a positive impact on the environment.
This partnership project highlights the importance of collaboration between sustainability organizations,
both educational and industry, to create designs that emotionally resonate with end users who demand
sustainable products in the marketplace. Outcomes included concepts ranging from new carpet fibers or
backing solutions created from agricultural, industrial, and consumer waste to new patterns based on
biophilia, demonstrating the ingenuity and creative problem solving that GenZ possess.
Introduction – A World of Waste
We live in a world that creates more waste
than it does reduce, reuse, or recycle. This
era, referred to as the Anthropocene, is
defined by human’s effect on the earth
(Merriam-Webster, 2019). Carbon emissions,
overpopulation, loss of natural resources,
pollution and debris, climate change, biological
and chemical influencers impact the planet in
devastating ways. Much of this has happened
since the Industrial Revolution, but more
crucially since the advent of plastics.
Currently, over 5 trillion pieces of plastic litter
the ocean, primarily from plastic containers
and bottles, fishing nets, and shopping bags
(The Ocean Cleanup, 2019). As a marker for
environmental impact, plastics are reshaping
ecosystems, cohabitating with natural
phenomena in a new form of pollution. One
such example is “Plastiglomerate,” a term
created to describe a stone that contains
mixtures of natural debris that is held together
by fragmented plastic debris (Corcoran,
Moore, Jazyac, 2014) (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Image of Plastiglomerate from the
Broken Nature : Design Takes on Human
Survival exhibit during the XXII Triennale di
Milano. © Royce Epstein.
Designers and manufacturers are innovating
new ways to utilize waste for materials in
interiors, architecture, products, fashion, and
the arts. These industries are addressing
humanity’s waste through material innovations
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Generation scrap: Designing with waste to transform the carpet industry
and production processes, creating a new
design language that moves beyond industry
or craft. Taking a proactive stance, designers
are using waste and scrap materials, as well
as connecting with other social issues, to find
solutions in favor of sustainability. Lithoplast
(Figure 2), created by Israeli designer Shahar
Livne, is another new material emblematic of
the Anthropocene. Livne speculates how
future generations could react to plastic,
envisioning Lithpolast as a valued material
mined when virgin plastic ceases production
(Chawla, 2019) (Figure 2). Companies such as
Adidas are partnering with programs like
PARLEY, a collective bringing together
different industries that upcycle ocean plastic
and fishing nets to replace virgin plastic,
transforming them into fibers for shoes or
molded into objects (Adidas, 2018).
Figure 2. Image of Lithpolast from the New
Material Award 2018 exhibit at Dutch Design
Week, Eindhoven. © Royce Epstein.
Textile waste is also contributing to the
Anthropocene. In 2015, over 16 million tons of
textile waste was generated in the United
States alone. Of this, only 2.62 million tons
were recycled and 10.46 million tons were sent
to landfills (EPA, 2019). Eileen Fisher is
another corporate innovator working under a
philosophy of “where others see waste, we see
possibility.” Introduced in 2018, her “Waste No
More” exhibit showcased new ways to utilize
reclaimed clothing waste to create a new
textile for fashion and commercial interiors
(Fisher, 2018).
Figure 3. Image from Fisher’s Waste No More
exhibition during Ventura Centrale, FuoriSalone,
Milan 2018. © Royce Epstein.
The interior design industry has witnessed
major innovations for interior finishes that
reduce waste and contribute to the circular
economy. The “Cradle to Cradle” movement
by William McDonough charged designers to
consider “everything is a resource for
something else,” that waste is food for new
materials and methods (McDonaugh, 2002).
Going even further to address the circular
economy, creating closed-loop systems for
manufacturing allow for industrial waste to
become a new valued resource.
With this mindset and advances in technology,
new techniques for designing and
manufacturing textiles and carpet for have
emerged. Addressing textile waste, Kvadrat
initiated Really in 2013. By 2017, they had
created two new materials: Solid Textile Board
and Acoustic Tile Felt, both readily made from
Kvadrat’s own waste stream of wool discards
combined with cotton and denim from the
fashion industry (Kvadrat, 2017).
Figure 4. Image of textile waste for new acoustic
products from Kvadrat Really exhibition during
FuoriSalone, Milan 2018. © Royce Epstein.
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Generation scrap: Designing with waste to transform the carpet industry
Within the carpet industry, Mohawk Industries
is one of the largest recyclers of plastic bottles,
diverting over 6 billion bottles yearly into PET
carpet fibers which produces 135 million
square yards of carpet. Contributing to the
circular economy, their ReCover recycling
program donates removed carpet to nonprofit
organizations, rather than sending it to landfills
(Mohawk Group, 2017). Mohawk prides itself
as innovators on every level from developing
new sustainable and dematerialized backings
and fibers to educating their clients and
students on the value of sustainable design
thinking and making. They believe in an all-
encompassing sustainability strategy,
handprints over footprints, giving more than
they take from the earth while still creating well
designed products (Shulman, 2018).
Figure 5. Image of recycling bales of PET water
bottles intended for new carpet fiber. © Mohawk
Industries.
Scrap Culture
These efforts towards a more sustainable
future strongly resonate with the values of
younger generations. Millennials and GenZ are
driven by their ethical responsibility toward
environmental and social sustainability,
focusing heavily on a company’s purpose
towards environmental and social impact
(MLSGroup, 2014). In a survey of GenZ, 76%
reported that they are concerned about
humanity’s impact on the planet and that it’s
the number one issue plaguing the world
(Sparks & Honey, 2014). If the Oxford
Dictionary defines “Pop Culture” as “modern
popular culture aimed particularly at younger
people” (2019), one might define this current
Anthropocene moment amongst Millennials
and GenZ, that of grappling with society’s
abundance of waste with the aspiration to
reduce their ecological footprint, as “Scrap
Culture.”
Within design, this notion is about looking at
waste as currency, a commodity and resource
for inventing materials and products. This
appreciation and demand for waste spreads
across industries and design practices that
want to participate in sustainability and the
circular economy. Embracing a Scrap Culture
mindset, more people can learn to embrace
waste as an asset, foreseeing potential
implementations for waste streams. As
generations who have only known a “Scrap
Culture,” one could refer to them as
“Generation Scrap.”
Generation Scrap –
A Pedagogical Approach
The building industry is one of the largest
consumers of plastic-derived materials and
products, thus interior design education is
positioned to transform Generation Scrap’s
relationship with plastic and other waste
materials. In order to create a more sustainable
built environment, it is critical that a
pedagogical approach to interior finish
materials include projects that encourage life
cycle analysis and exploration of waste
reduction. By establishing a sustainable design
mindset early on in interior design education,
particularly within the Interior Finish Materials
course, sustainability will become a building
block for all subsequent design decisions.
Mohawk believes that in order to create a more
sustainable future, education of sustainability
and textile design must go hand in hand by
engaging designers of the future. In this spirit,
a project was developed in partnership with
Mohawk Group, a division of Mohawk
Industries. Positioned within an introductory
level Interior Finish Materials course at The
Ohio State University, this project explores the
design process and theoretical design
concepts for a carpet that would mitigate
waste. This project leverages Mohawk’s
extensive knowledge and advancements within
sustainable manufacturing and the circular
economy to improve student outcomes.
Research and Trend Forecast
When you combine design thinking and
sustainability, you can solve big problems.
Inspired by emerging designers, this asked
students to develop a trend forecast report
positioning sustainability alongside societal
issues, conceptualizing a future that is both
environmentally and socially sustainable.
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Generation scrap: Designing with waste to transform the carpet industry
Launching the project, Mohawk’s A&D Design
Director, Royce Epstein, presented her
authored CEU presentation “Scrap Culture.”
Diving deeper, students individually
researched scrap culture to understand how all
design industries are addressing waste.
Students then looked at the world through their
own lens, contemplating personal ethics,
social movements globally and locally, art,
fashion, and technology to discover what they
foresee as leading to the future of design,
resulting in their final trend forecast.
Design Concepts
Applying their trend forecast, students
designed a carpet concept for a commercial
application (workplace, hospitality, retail,
higher education, etc.) that would positively
impact the natural environment and the human
experience of space. Taking longevity into
consideration, the design addressed durability,
meeting industry high traffic standards.
Designs also considered the overall aesthetic,
including patterns, colors, and textures that are
relevant today and ten years from now. As a
theoretical project, students were encouraged
to propose new manufacturing materials and
methods, such as solutions for backing or
fibers. The design concepts needed to create
a meaningful dialogue between industry, craft,
sustainability, and social challenges.
Outcomes
Juried by a team of design professionals at
Mohawk Group, the following projects were
awarded first, second, and third place amongst
the students in the class. These examples
demonstrate a breath of theoretical
approaches for how carpet design can be both
beautiful and meaningful while contributing to
the reduction of global waste.
Example 1: Terra Haven Trail
Trend Forecast
Concerned for the plight of refugees facing
displacement due to global warming, Katherine
Hunter’s design addressed the sustainability
and humanitarian challenges surrounding the
mass migration crisis. Her trend research
focused on climate refugees, highlighting a
subset of refugees that are forced to migrate
due to inhabitable conditions related to climate
change, which includes rising sea levels,
hurricanes, drought, rising temperatures, and
the melting arctic ice.
Figure 6. Image of Hunter’s trend forecast from
her final presentation. © Katherine Hunter and
The Ohio State University.
Design Translation
Hunter’s design objective was to bring Climate
Migration to the surface, literally, through
pattern language and fiber construction.
Inspired by forging a trail to a new beginning,
the design started by understanding the
physical and emotional journey of a refugee.
Translating migration maps, the surface
pattern become a means for wayfinding within
an interior. The color collection was derived by
two paths of travel, across water and land.
These natural color palettes, based on
biophilia, create a sense of calm. The
application is intended for healthcare spaces
where refugees seeking a new life would feel
at home in their new environment.
Figure 7. Image of Hunter’s carpet design from
her final presentation. © Katherine Hunter and
The Ohio State University.
Sustainable Strategy
In further researching the waste stream caused
by the refugee crisis, Hunter discovered that
lifejackets are polluting beaches and oceans
along migration paths. Thus, Hunter’s
sustainable strategy uses discarded life jackets
as raw material for a new carpet material.
Commercial carpet is made from nylon –
instead of using virgin nylon, Hunter proposes
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recycling the nylon from refugee’s lifejackets
for new carpet fiber and the foam interior as a
backing material. Once again physically
connecting to the refugee story, each 24”
carpet tile would metaphorically represent one
refugee whose life was forever affected by
climate change.
Figure 8. Image of Hunter’s sustainability
strategy from her final presentation. © Katherine
Hunter and The Ohio State University.
Example 2: Bending Lines
Trend Forecast
The sharing economy and technology have
enabled the demolition of many boundaries.
As GenZ looks to the future, they envision a
more evolved society, one that is cross cultural
and more accepting of differences in race,
age, and gender. They desire a society that is
fluid, a term that speaks to people who are not
of a single place but part of many, not defined
by a preconceived idea of identity but one that
moves between previously defined
boundaries. Definitions and depictions of male
and female are being transformed and even
erased through gender bending as design and
fashion is embracing androgyny, gay rights
and acceptance of transgendered people.
Abigail Bouton explored these ideas for her
trend forecast.
Figure 9. Image of Bouton’s trend forecast from
her final presentation. © Abigail Bouton and The
Ohio State University.
Design Translation
Interpreting this cultural trend, Bouton explored
gender as binary and non-binary, translating
these concepts into pattern-work using line,
hierarchy, and space. The gridded pattern
moves from heavy to thinner lines, creating a
fluid pattern that can be seen as blurring the
boundaries between what is traditionally male
vs. female. This collection was designed as
modular tile and broadloom, showing the
versatility and fluidity of installation types.
Seeking to further push the idea of non-binary
and redefine perceptions of feminity, the
monochromatic color palette is in shades of
pink as well as black and white.
Figure 10. Image of Bouton’s carpet design from
her final presentation. © Abigail Bouton and The
Ohio State University.
Sustainable Strategy
While the fashion industry is a leader in forging
a non-binary world, Bouton recognizes that
textile waste from their industry is negatively
impacting the environment. Thus, striving to
reduce fashion’s waste as well as greenhouse
gas emitions from virgin polyester production
(a fiber used for carpet), Bouton’s strategy
reclaims polyester textiles destined for the
landfill to be recycled into new carpet fibers.
Figure 11. Image of Bouton’s sustainability
strategy from her final presentation. © Abigail
Bouton and The Ohio State University.
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Generation scrap: Designing with waste to transform the carpet industry
Example 3: Ocean Floors
Trend Forecast
One of the greatest sustainability challenges
today is the volume of non-biodegradable
plastics polluting our oceans. As humanity
understands the consequences of their
throwaway lifestyle, as evident in the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch and other such
occurrences around the world, efforts to swiftly
patch our ecosystem must be addressed by all
industries. Scientists and designers alike are
tackling this through new material explorations
using ocean plastic as a raw material for new
products. As a global issue, it will take
industries collaborating to make a major
change. Thus, Serena Schwallie’s forecast
builds on the notion of “team work to make the
dream work.”
Figure 12. Image of Schwallie’s trend forecast
from her final presentation. © Serena Schwallie
and The Ohio State University.
Design Translation
Schwallie’s Mohawk + Parley Ocean Floors
carpet collection reflects the eight primary
regions around the world (Hawaii, Maine, the
UK, Jamaica, Alaska, Maldives, Indonesia,
and Australia) whose beaches and
surrounding oceans are most impacted by
plastic waste. Highlighting that this is indeed a
global problem, the pattern and colors relate to
each other but each colorway is unique to the
beaches of the specific regions. Applied within
an office interior, each colorway defines a
conference room or brainstorming area where
the polluted beach and its story becomes the
room identity and environmental graphics. This
concept further illustrates the power of interior
finish materials to transform a space into a
more meaningful and impactful place.
Figure 13. Image of Schwallie’s carpet design
from her final presentation. © Serena Schwallie
and The Ohio State University.
Sustainable Strategy
Conceived as a partnership between Mohawk
with Parley, the collection would leverage
Parley’s work to recycle debris from the eight
beaches to create carpet fibers. Each
color/pattern in the collection would be made
from reclaimed ocean plastic from that specific
region, directly linking people standing on the
carpet to the beach where the raw material
originated. This sustainability story is relevant
as everyone can relate to oceans and plastic
waste, and feel they are contributing to
circularity.
Figure 14. Image of Schwallie’s sustainability
strategy from her final presentation. © Serena
Schwallie and The Ohio State University.
Conclusions
From proposals of new carpet fibers or backing
solutions created from agricultural, industrial,
and consumer waste to new patterns based on
biophilia, this project demonstrates the
ingenuity and creative problem solving that
GenZ possess. This partnership highlights the
importance of industry collaboration between
sustainability organizations, both educational
and industry, to create designs that emotionally
connect to end users who demand sustainable
products in the marketplace. By incorporating
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Generation scrap: Designing with waste to transform the carpet industry
projects such as this into our university
curriculums, we can make a tangible impact on
the environment. As experienced practitioners
of interior and product design in a sustainability
context, Mohawk believes it is imperative to
inspire the next generation of designers and
design thinkers to tackle the dire environmental
and social challenges of our time. Generation
Scrap aims to do just that – instill a
combination of global insight, cultural context,
current and future sustainability initiatives, and
design practice into a cohesive project that
redefines the scope of materials for the built
environment.
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