Dell'Orco - Villani

After WWII, Giovanni Dell'Orco and his friend, Silvano Villani, formed Dell'Orco & Villani in Capalle, Italy not far from Prato and Florence.  First they made spare parts for textile machinery.  Soon after, they manufactured textile tearing and opening machines to recycle textile waste. These machines were sold to local textile shreding plants.  By 1977, after working in the industry in the UK, Sergio Dell'Orco joined his father's company back in Italy.

Simultaneously, after WWII, Fred Levy emigrated to the USA and started Stellamcor, Inc. to sell and import textile machinery to the USA and Canada.  After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering and working for Rohr Aircraft, Frank Levy also joined his father in their family company, Among their clients were carpet manufacturing plants including Burlington Industries, Avondale and Riverside Mills. 

They sold numerous carpet spinning plants both in America, Canada, Germany, Israel and Japan.  In 1978, on one of many business trips to Italy, Frank went to Prato to see a new 100" Garnett machine that opens textile waste into reusable fibers.  Next to the Garnett was another machine that produced at least five times more fiber.  When Frank asked to meet the person who made that machine, the owner of the manufacturing facility told Frank that because he was an American, he would not understand or appreciate the value of the new equipment. Frank persevered and met Sergio Dell'Orco. 

     It was the start of a long and mutually beneficial business relationship.

Their first client was Fiber Conversion in Broadalbin, NY.  Others soon followed in Germany, Israel, Canada and the USA.  At the time, they did not know that they were already one hundred percent green and sustainable.  Another of their clients was the LA Fibers co. in Los Angeles, CA. 

In 2000, Sergio and Frank gave a speech at the Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, GA.  They were aware of the possibility to recycle carpets but did not realize that so many used carpets were being dumped into landfills polluting the earth.

They took their Post Consumer Carpet Processing Technology® (PCC®) to Universal Fibers and then to Interface, the world's third largest carpet manufacturer.  Interface, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, has over 8,000 employees in plants all over the world.  Sales are well over one billion dollars.  Equally important is Interface's commitment to be 100 percent sustainable by the year 2020. 

In 2008 PCC won a World ENERGY GLOBE Award for their new technology that can reclaim up to 30 million pounds of used carpet annually.  The equipment separates oil-based fiber from oil-based carpet backing.  Both materials can be reused, thereby promoting sustainability and saving energy.  The Award was presented at the European Parliament in Brussels by Maneka Ghandi.