Differential Assessments

Differential Assessment Plan for the California Carpet Stewardship Program

Watch the video introduction:

California passed additional carpet legislation that went into effect January 1, 2020 (AB 729). That law requires CARE to implement a differential assessment on each square yard of carpet that reflects its cost to recycle. After almost a year of analysis CARE, working with carpet manufacturers, has developed the proposed Differential Assessment Plan.

CalRecycle is requiring implementation of Carpet Differential Assessments by April 1, 2022.

In the plan, differential assessments will be based on broadloom vs. tile. All broadloom (residential and commercial) will be treated the same.

Broadloom assessment: 35 cents/sq yd; No change vs. the current assessment.
Carpet tile assessment: 50 cents/sq yd; Effective date April 1, 2022

Another provision of the law requires that we provide recognition of carpet products containing post-consumer (PC) content. Initially this requirement will be reflected in the assessment being reduced by 2 cents/yd2 for any product, broadloom or tile, that has 10% or more certified PC content.

As a result, the proposed Plan has four different levels of assessment:

Differential Assessment Levels as of April 1, 2022
Product	> or = 10% Post-Consumer Content	<10% Post-Consumer Content
Broadloom	$0.33 /square yard	$0.35 /square yard
Tile	$0.48 /square yard	$0.50 /square yard

CARE will be developing sales force training information and consumer explanation flyers for retailers’ use. (See also Differential Assessments: Frequently Asked Questions)

Feedback on this proposal may be sent directly to CARE via email to Feedback@CarpetRecovery.org; please copy CalRecycle at Carpet@CalRecycle.ca.gov.