At a time of immense strain on recycling efforts across the country, carpet recycling saw significant progress in 2020 in California, according to the just-released California Carpet Stewardship Program 2020 Annual Report. The California Program achieved an all-time program high recycling rate of 23.2 percent in Q4 2020, with an overall annual recycling rate of 21 percent in 2020. While it did not meet the target 24 percent goal, the recycling rate for this fossil-fuel-based material is up 107% in the past five years.
CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples notes, “We are incredibly proud of the determination and resilience shown by the California carpet recycling community. Thanks to their efforts, in the past five years alone, 292 million pounds of discarded carpet was kept out of California landfills – equivalent to more than 10,000 full-loaded 53-foot trailers of carpet – and recycled into useful new products.
- The California Program achieved an all-time program high recycling rate of 23.2 percent in Q4, with an overall annual recycling rate of 21 percent in 2020. This is short of the Program’s 24 percent goal but reflects steady year-over-year compounded growth of 20% per year, despite a global pandemic and other challenges, while other materials’ recycling rates have declined.
- 67 million pounds of post-consumer carpet was diverted from California landfills.
- 53 million pounds of recycled output was produced.
- Over 72 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions (MTC02E) was saved.
- $16.9 million in subsidies supported collectors, processors and manufacturers of recycled carpet material.
- Nearly $1.1 million in grant funding was paid in 2020. Since 2017, CARE has paid over $8 million to grow carpet recycling via grants for capital improvement, product testing and expansion of collection.