Coir Doormats—All the Strength and Beauty of Nature Laid at Your Door
When it comes to environmental consciousness even the smallest efforts can have wide ranging effects that echo further than you would imagine. For example, something as simple as buying and utilizing eco-friendly door mats will give you an amazingly durable product while you support an environmentally conscious production process halfway across the world! All coir mats are made with 100% natural coconut husk fiber and all products both finished and unfinished are sold by small producers (mostly in cottage industry type settings) who still use traditional methods. And don’t forget that natural mat products can also offer health benefits by keeping you and your family away from harmful chemicals that are often used in other processing options. Employing a natural mat made of coconut coir fiber in your entryways will keep dirt, grime, and moisture out of your home with all the resilience and strength of a remarkable and naturally derived material. This material has a pretty complex way of being processed, which surprisingly enough given our day and age, yields little to no pollution.
A natural mat is also very beautiful. Usually, it is available in a rich golden-brown color, but it can also be dyed different colors for bright patterns and unique designs. This is a product that will beautify any entrance. But if you’re curious about the actual method by which this resilient material is produced, then here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the coir-making procedure.
- The Harvest
A coconut coir mat, as the name implies, is made from coconuts. Therefore, the first step in making these mats is to harvest the coconuts. Skilled tree climbers are employed to climb up the tall length of coconut palms, where they retrieve the fruit. Afterwards the fruit gets divided by ripeness—which will produce a lighter and darker option.
- The Coconut
The next step in the processes is the removal of the husk. The husk is the middle part of a coconut found between the outermost part and the endocarp, the actual coconut shell. In this step the fibrous husk, otherwise known as the mesocarp, is separated from what we more normally associate with the actual coconut fruit. Dexterous workers de-fiber the coconuts by hand using machetes.
- Retting
After being de-fibered, coconut husks are processed through a method called retting. Ripe husks go in fresh water and take 3-6 months to ferment while green husks go into salt water for 8-10 months. The fermenting method encourages natural occurring microbes to decompose the pulp, to facilitate the fiber extraction in the process of creating a natural mat.
- Decortication
Once the husks gone through the retting process, the material is decorticated. This removes the husk while also separating the resulting material into coir pit and coir fiber. It is the coir fiber that will eventually be used to make natural mat products like coco coir mats!
- Hackled
Now that the coir fiber has been separated from the pit it is carefully hackled or combed by hand. This allows the fiber to be uniformly treated and aids in maintaining the integrity of fiber length and strength.
- Drying
The fibers are now washed and spread outside where the sun will dry them. Even this step of the processes is utilizing natural resources—the warmth of the sun and is thereby reducing the use and need for more environmentally harmful resources like electricity. This is yet another quality that truly makes our natural mat products eco-friendly door mats.
- Separation of Lengths
The final step before this material can be used to make a natural mat is separation based on lengths. The newly washed and dried fibers are put through a machine with a big tumbling drum that divides the coir by lengths—long fibers for weaving and short fibers for products like mats.
There are many reasons to employ a natural mat in your home or business—from durability to health benefits. But if one of your main reasons in using this type of flooring is because you want to support a truly and completely ecologically sound product then coconut fiber eco-friendly door mats are the right choice. This isn’t a designer material or one of those fad-fashion type things. Coir has been used for centuries in everything from ropes to mattress stuffing! From its production to the biodegradability of the material, a natural mat is a great eco-friendly product. This natural mat will work wonderfully as a scraping surface to keep mud, moisture, and gravel out of your home, where it could damage floors or cause messes. Harness the power, strength, and longevity of natural products in your home.
