Are you looking for a safe, natural, non-toxic carpet for your living room or kids’ bedroom that is free of harmful chemicals? Natural fiber carpets are a great choice for those looking for the safest option. There are also synthetic fiber carpets that are also free of harmful chemicals. Depending on your budget and interests, we can help you find a great carpet for your home. You trust Mamavation to provide you with information on the best organic mattresses, the best air purifiers, and the safest non-toxic upholstery and carpet cleaners, so join us now to learn how to buy the safest carpet.
Disclosure: This post was medically reviewed by Sondra Strand, RN, BSN, PHN, and Rebecca Harkes, RN, BSN. This post also contains affiliate links.
Most of the commercial carpeting you see in big box stores is made of toxic materials that have many attractive properties, such as (1) being fire-resistant, (2) being stain-resistant, (3) being water-resistant, (4) making the fabric bright and colorful, (4) preventing lice and other insects from infesting, and (5) preventing the carpet from sliding around on the floor. However, people often use toxic chemicals and materials to solve these problems, and over the years, independent researchers have found that many of these chemicals are more dangerous than we originally thought.
Over time, these toxins and chemicals break down in your carpet, putting you at risk. Not to mention how toxic they are to small children and pregnant women—the groups most vulnerable to hormone-disrupting chemicals. Before you buy another carpet, it’s important to know what your options are and where to find the safest carpets. Mamavation conducted this carpet survey to answer some of the most important questions about carpets and the materials they’re made from. We also have a plan to help you improve your indoor air quality, even if you already have toxic products.
Some chemicals are more harmful to public health than others. Carpeting may be beautiful, but over time, some of these toxic chemicals become airborne and can disrupt hormones. Here are some questions you may have when shopping for traditional carpet.
For carpets, it is best to use natural materials. The most non-toxic options are the following materials:
This is not a complete list of all the certifications available on carpet, but these are the most important certifications you will find on non-toxic or natural carpet (and the most popular), and they have most of the properties you are looking for.
If you have already spent a lot of money on carpeting that contains toxic substances and chemicals and do not want to buy new carpeting, there are steps you can take to reduce and control your risk of exposure to toxic substances and chemicals. Here are the steps we recommend you take:
In 2023, Mamavation sent emails to various rug brands for you. We ended up sending 1-5 emails to most brands, depending on how they responded. The response from brands varied. Here’s what we asked them:
We try to be as specific as possible when brands are willing to provide us with information, but not all brands are as transparent or take as long to answer our questions as we would like, so we do our best to rank them even if the information we have is incomplete. We try to make our categories as clear as possible, but please understand that products can change without notice. We can’t control how their business will change after this study is published.
These rugs may contain synthetic materials, flame retardants, PFAS “forever chemicals,” toxic adhesives, pesticide residues, or other potentially harmful substances. We also included brands in this section that we contacted twice but did not respond to either request, so we did not have enough product information to rate them higher.
These rugs are a compromise. They are much safer than the “unloved” rugs, but some problems may still arise. This category may also be more affordable than the “Best” category. These rugs vary in quality, but most are free of PFAS (the ever-present chemical coatings) and flame retardants. However, most are made from petroleum or petroleum derivatives.
These rugs do not use flame retardants, PFAS “forever chemical” treatments, toxic dyes or other materials that can off-gas and create indoor air quality issues. These rugs are made from natural materials such as wool, cotton, jute, hemp, etc. Some rugs in this category are GOTS organic certified and we clearly mark them with the * icon.
Hi! Can you please tell Lorena Canals if they use chemicals to clean their carpets? I would like to know what tests they do since their carpets are made of cotton, not organic materials. Have they confirmed that they do not contain flame retardants, even though they are sold in the US? I have not received an answer yet!
Can you confirm with Lorena Canals that they do not use flame retardants and that their carpets are not treated with any chemicals? I have not received an answer yet!
All FLOR carpet tiles, as well as all products manufactured by parent company Interface, are free of heavy metals, formaldehyde, phthalates, fluorinated chemicals (PFAS) and halogenated flame retardants.
They are also third-party certified as low-VOC emitting products according to California Department of Public Health Standard Test Method v1.2-2017 and, in the case of carpet tiles, Green Label Plus certified (see appendix).
Hi, have you contacted Revival Rugs? The website mentions Oeko-Tex certification and they seem pretty good, but I’m not sure. Thank you for all your hard work!
loloi replied to my email and said they do not add harmful chemicals. Why are they blacklisted? Because they sell polyester carpets too? I am looking at their wool carpets.
I have always wanted to hand weave a rug or mat from cattail leaves. Create something new every few years. You can also use recycled natural fibers/fabrics to weave/crochet rag rugs. Thank you so much!! Thank you for all the real information you share!! You are amazing, mom!! <3
Rugs USA has different brands and materials (just like IKEA has different materials) – how can you list them as absolutes? I like wool rugs, they are not expensive, but now I wonder: are they bad? Want to know how you came to this conclusion?
Did FLOR answer your question? Their website states, “All FLOR tiles are non-toxic, hypoallergenic, and meet or exceed low VOC standards, making them safe for you and your family.”
It also says: “What is FLOR made of? The majority of the fibers in FLOR fabric are nylon, PET, and nylon blends. Our backing is a vinyl composite, which is increasingly made from recycled content. To learn more about how to recycle FLOR, click here. What is FLOR’s backing made of? FLOR carpet tiles are available with two types of backings: Graphlar and GlasBac. Graphlar is made from asphalt composite with up to 40% recycled content. GlasBac is a vinyl composite with up to 40% recycled content. Most FLOR carpet squares use a GlasBac backing, which is 100% recyclable. Our new CQUEST™ GB carbon negative carpet tile backing is made from recycled carpet tiles, bio-based materials, and recycled content. Models with this backing can be found here.”…
I know what is stated on the website and what you actually see can be different, so I would like to know how you are getting on with this company (or if they have not responded to your inquiries) as I have a few samples of these tiles and really like them.
Flor tiles are actually made by this company Interface: https://www.interface.com/US/en-US/sustainability/hpds.html They are certified green and do not use PFAS in their products. I don’t think the authors of this blog realize that all of this information is readily available online, and if you connect the dots, Flor is made by Interface. I don’t work for either company, and I just can’t figure this out on my own because I just installed three different Flor tile carpets in an entire room in my house, and I have a 14 month old, and I am absolutely terrified.
Thank you so much for providing us with these beautiful rugs! I saw on the Branch Basics Instagram account that rugs purchased overseas are treated with insecticide before being shipped to the United States. Have you heard of anything like that?
I was surprised to see Nuloom on the “what we don’t like” list because they have several wool and cotton rugs. Are they substandard or just greenwashing? Thanks so much for testing!!