In August the CARE California Carpet Stewardship Program awarded two grants, totaling $200,000, under its new Innovation & Design cycle. This grant cycle is intended to provide funding for testing and development activities that create:
- A more recyclable and environmentally sustainable carpet design and/or
- Post-consumer carpet (PCC) products that are more reusable, recyclable and/or have a decreased environmental footprint.
University of California Santa Barbara was awarded $100,000 to explore the depolymerization of traditionally difficult-to-recycle carpet tile fibers using the principles of green chemistry. The project lead is Mahdi Abu-Omar, Mellichamp Chair in Green Chemistry and Professor at UCSB.
West Virginia University was awarded $100,000 to research higher-value uses for post-consumer carpet calcium carbonate (PC4) in fiber-reinforced polymer composites for use in the construction industry. The project lead is Rakesh Gupta, a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at WVU.
Both projects will run through the 2023-24 academic year.
CARE plans to release another round of Innovation & Design grant funding in fall 2023. For more information, see the CARE grants webpage or email CARE grants manager Abbie Beane.