The Nets Beneath our Feet

What if you could take something worthless and damaging and make something beautiful that has not just less impact on the environment but can actually make things better?

That has been the mission of Interface since 1994. Initially founded in 1973, Interface was already the largest global manufacturer of carpet tiles when it decided to focus on lowering its environmental impact, reducing the use of petroleum in particular. In line with its Mission Zero® commitments, all its products, including all carpet tile and luxury vinyl tile (LVT), are designed to be entirely carbon-neutral. Then not satisfied with neutral, the visionaries at Interface spearheaded innovations in new bio-materials and reclaimed recycled content, creating their CQuestBioX backing. By combining this backing with their speciality yarns and tufting process, they created a carbon-negative tile cradle-to-gate, compensating for end-of-life CO2.

Doing no harm is not good enough anymore. They want to give back, to reverse the damage already done. One tile at a time.

We connected with Interface through our shared concern over the threat from ghost fishing gear on our ocean and aquaculture.

Ghost fishing gear contributes a significant proportion of marine plastic pollution. Fishing nets and equipment are designed to trap. These silent killers pose a severe threat to aquatic animals when inadvertently lost at sea. We believe policies are urgently needed to prevent the loss of nets at sea. Fishers need to be given viable end of life solutions for damaged gear.

To this end, we co-produced a position paper calling for extended producer responsibility for the fishing industry. Together with the IUCN, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, UNEP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, we set out to show how a well-designed EPR would reduce ocean plastic pollution by controlling the collection and improving the recycling of unwanted nets and ropes.

Interface’s innovative carpet solutions demonstrate how used nets can be given new life. Their Net-Works® programme is an innovative, cross-segment initiative designed to tackle discarded fishing nets in some of the world’s poorest coastal communities. Fishing nets collected in Southeast Asia are recycled into new nylon yarn for their carpet tiles using Aquafil yarn. This means fewer ghost nets, less virgin materials being used and a new source of income for the communities.

Plus, they are very pretty!

Interface was kind enough to gift us this ocean-inspired carpet for our exhibition space. Our expo is designed to highlight the potential for innovative waste-to-product recycling, and the carpet takes centre stage.

Every square has a tale to tell, and we look forward to sharing its circular story with all our visitors.