In 2021, CARE made 12 grants totaling $1.617 million to nine companies. CARE’s grantees helped to push the recycling rate to reach the 26% target for the first time, with increased collections, recycling and post-consumer-content (PCC) product development.
The grants program made six capital awards, one testing award and five micro collection awards. Eight of the nine companies awarded are based in California, and funding resulted in three new post-consumer carpet (PCC) collection sites.
In total, CARE capital grantees produced over 33 million pounds of recycled output and collected over 28 million pounds of PCC in 2021. Micro grantees collected more than 2.5 million pounds last year. New capital grants also opened opportunities for foam-backed tile processing as well as commercial broadloom processing in the state.
Cycle 3 testing grantees, which completed projects in 2021, established several new end products, including glass fiber-reinforced concrete and asphalt and cementitious block applications for PCC. One Cycle 2 grantee is completing designs for a bagged cement product for residential and commercial use.
CARE anticipates launching Cycle 6 of its capital grants program and Cycle 5 of its testing grants program in March 2022 CARE is also accepting applications under its Cycle 5 Micro Grants for Collection/Reuse through year-end and is accepting proposals under its New Collection Strategies/Small Infrastructure Pilot Program through the end of March.
For questions about the CARE grants program, please email Abbie Beane, CARE grants administrator or visit the CARE Grants webpage.