Valley Forge Fiercely Eco-Friendly on Fabrics

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 3/10/2008 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Interior designers and decorative fabric designers are joining the campaign to develop home furnishings that are recyclable and environmentally friendly.

For Valley Forge Fabrics, the addition of New York interior designer/product designer Celerie Kemble, as well as Mimi McMakin and Brooke Huttig of Kemble Interiors (Palm Beach, Fla.) adds to the cachet of the company's line of "FRESH" fabrics that are 100% post-consumer and post-industrial recycled products.

Each of the two collections is about 80 skus.

Fresh, which stands for Fabrics Redefining Environmental Standards for Hospitality, is designed not just for the contract market, but even more so for the residential market, said Diana Dobin, vp of family owned Valley Forge Fabrics. At a meeting here last month, Dobin outlined the company's approach "that will change the world, one yard at a time."

The Fresh collection is a group of 1,000 Skus in the $12 to $20 per yard price brackets and are made from 100% recycled polyester products that also are 100% recyclable. Dobin pointed out that there are "16 phases of recycling and refining done at the facility" in Albany, N.Y. that include separating the clear from colored plastic bottles. Polyester, she added, is the fiber of choice because "it meets the fire codes, is eco-friendly, and is recyclable."

And for those wanting to do some of the arithmetic, there are 15 bottles used in making one yard of fabric from pellets created from the bottles, she said.

As for recycling the fabrics made from recycled materials, Valley Forge has developed a pickup and delivery program that will take the fabrics to their final resting place, in lieu of being consigned to a landfill or local dump.