Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Synthetic Carpet
As a mother with children, two dogs, a cat, and a husband, and as a person trying to live a healthy lifestyle, I have come to discover that I despise synthetic carpet. According to Answers.com, carpet is ‘A thick heavy covering for a floor, usually made of woven wool or synthetic fibers; a rug.” Synthetic carpets are made of plastics, rubber, and other caustic chemicals.
Here are ten reasons why you should not buy synthetic carpet:
10: Synthetic carpet is hard to keep looking clean. It is unforgiving of stains, and even the most diligent cleaner cannot hide all past sins done by kids, pets, and accidental occurrences.
9: Synthetic carpet is impossible to sanitize. Carpet is known to harbor dirt, and dust and allergens are trapped in carpet and even constant cleaning will leave behind germ and other undesirable things. Buildinggreen.com points out “Once installed, a carpet acts like a filter for anything in the air, trapping particulates and pollutants. Anything carried onto a carpet on shoes or wheels can also become lodged in it. Hydrocarbons from a street or pesticides from a yard can enter the carpet matrix. Outdoors, ultraviolet sunlight eventually breaks down these chemicals, but in the carpet, there is nothing to remove them. Frequent and effective vacuuming can reduce the accumulation of such contaminants, but not even hot-water extraction can eliminate them all.”
8: Synthetic carpet cannot be replaced easily. Some stains cannot be avoided. Nail polish, nail polish remover, wine stains, pet stains, and paint, can render a carpet ugly and useless. However to replace is can be exorbitant. By eliminating carpets and replacing them with wood floors and natural rugs when added warmth is needed these errors can be corrected more easily.
7. Old, worn, natural area rugs are easier to manage than wall-to-wall carpet. Wool area rugs can be rolled up and tossed out by one person. Wall to wall synthetic carpet must be torn out and discarded.
6. Wood and tile floors are just easier to clean. These floors can be swept clean effortlessly, and sanitized with a mop and soap. An occasional waxing will renew them much less expensively than replacing 2000 sq feet of carpet.
5. Natural carpet is safe for the environment: Natural carpet made of 100% raw materials emits no hazardous chemicals during the manufacturing process.
4. Natural carpet is stylish. It comes in as many beautiful styles as synthetic carpet.
3. Natural area rugs (on hard wood or tile floors), are easy to clean. They can be taken to the dry cleaner for stain removal.
2. Synthetic carpet is bad for the environment. According to buildinggreen.com, “The carpet industry is quick to point out those carpet adhesives and seam sealants emit far more pollutants, especially in the first few weeks after installation. Carpet cushions, or pads, may be at fault as well.”
1. Synthetic carpet is bad for your health. Some of the chemicals used in the manufacture of carpet include ethylbenzene, which causes eye irritation, azulene, which causes headaches, 2-utyloctanol-1, which causes nausea, 2-methyl-4-tridecene, which is known to aggravate asthma and phthalic esters, which can cause nervous system disorders. These are just a few of many.
