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Trying to find the best eco-friendly area rug for your home? Finding the right style that doesn’t exceed your budget might seem challenging enough as it is, but there’s actually one more thing that you should factor into your purchasing decision. You want a healthy rug.
An area rug can work wonders for enhancing the aesthetic in any corner of your home. Since they serve a functional yet decorative purpose, it’s a good idea to invest in a high-quality rug that you can feel safe about bringing into your home.
Conventional rugs are made from synthetic fibers and other toxic materials that you definitely don’t want your loved ones to be around. It’s even worse when you have smaller children or pets in your household.
Investing in an eco-friendly rug can give you peace of mind, knowing that you’re really doing your best to create a safe environment at home.
Luckily, there are brands that are actively working towards bridging the gap in fulfilling social responsibility and creating safer products that can lower our impact on the environment. Here’s a simple guide to help you pick out the best eco-friendly area rug!
Benefits of Choosing an Eco-Friendly Area Rug
There are A TON of reasons why you should seriously consider investing in a sustainable rug! Let’s take a closer look at why you should add eco-friendly onto your checklist when shopping for a new area rug.
To help preserve the environment
It’s important to understand that our everyday life decisions – whether big or small, can have a profound impact on the environment. By opting for sustainable or green alternatives when shopping for household items, we can all do our part in helping to preserve the environment.
Petroleum is an unrenewable resource, which is typically used during the manufacturing process for rugs and carpet padding. Eco-friendly rugs are generally made from natural materials or fibers, such as organic cotton, wool, jute, bamboo, and seagrass.
Choosing rugs that are made from natural materials can help reduce our collective contributions to the current environmental crisis (reducing the waste that ends up in our landfills), since they’re biodegradable or recyclable.
Safer for your health
Opting for an eco-friendly rug isn’t just safer for the environment, it’s also better for your health and well-being. Sustainable rugs are made from natural materials, which means that you don’t have to worry as much about bringing toxic chemicals into your home.
Conventional rugs are full of toxic substances that are known to negatively impact our health. These harsh chemicals are also known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They emit dangerous gases, which can contaminate the quality of the indoor air in our homes for years.
A better alternative for people with allergies
If you suffer from allergies, then it’s definitely in your best interests to look into purchasing an eco-friendly rug. You know that “new carpet smell?” Those are the fumes that you want to avoid at all costs.
These fumes can degrade the quality of our indoor air, posing as a serious health risk for everyone in your household. These chemicals have been linked to health issues, such as respiratory diseases, heart disease, and cancer.
Other common side effects include allergic skin reactions, headaches, dizziness, and signs of irritation in the throat or nose. Natural rugs can be particularly beneficial for those who suffer from allergies. Compared to conventional rugs, eco-friendly rugs are easier to maintain and they produce less allergens.
Unique appearance
If you’re someone who likes to stand out from the rest of the crowd, you’ll love the distinctive appearance of an eco-friendly rug. You can expect a higher level of craftsmanship through a more intricate weaving process, which gives these rugs a truly one-of-a-kind look and feel.
An added bonus is that most of them are also reversible, which means you get twice the amount of use from your rug in between cleaning sessions.
The best eco-friendly area rugs
organic weave
Whether you’re searching for a statement piece or an accent rug, you will be delighted to know that you are adding something unique and beautiful to your home, as well as choosing a product that is nontoxic for you and your family.
Every Organic Weave rug is certified organic by GOTS (The Global Organic Textile Standard) and GoodWeave – their rugs are proudly handmade by skilled adult artisans who use the finest natural and nontoxic materials.
Hook & Loom
Hook & Loom is a brand that holds a very strong commitment to creating healthy, beautiful rugs through the most Earth-friendly practices. For this brand, the environment always comes first! This sentiment rings true when you read through the very specific guidelines that they’ve set for themselves on their website:
- Dyes are never used (even green alternatives)
- No chemicals
- No latex
- Their main priorities: Caring for the Earth, their employees, and their consumers
All of their rugs are either made from Eco Cotton or Natural Undyed Wool. Eco Cotton is produced through an innovative technique where donated textiles are converted into fiber form. Next, these fibers are spun into yarn and then woven by hand into an Eco Cotton rug.
Conclusion
We hope that you found this guide useful in helping you pick out the best eco-friendly area rug for your home! At the end of the day, choosing more sustainable options (whenever possible) can have a remarkable impact on the environment.
But most importantly, showing your support to brands that are dedicated to making a positive impact on the environment can feel incredibly rewarding.
Together, we can all work towards preserving the environment by reducing our collective contributions to the waste that ends up in our landfills. Besides fulfilling social responsibility, choosing an eco-friendly rug is one of the best things that you can do for your health!
Do you already own an eco-friendly rug? We’d love to hear all about your personal experience shopping for a rug that’s stylish and environmentally-friendly. Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions for us – and of course, if you have any tips to share with us on how to choose the perfect eco-friendly rug!
This post was originally published on January 6, 2020.
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