A recent article in Floor Daily by Darius Helm summarizes the enormous challenges the carpet recycling industry has faced in the last year. These challenges have seriously damaged the economic viability of recycling all kinds of materials, but the impact on carpet has been particularly severe. With the global drop in the price of oil, the demand for materials made with recycled petroleum-based products, including most carpet, has also plummeted. The lack of, and the lack of demand for, post-consumer carpet (PCC) products has hurt the few processors that are still accepting carpet for recycling, and there is little incentive for collectors/sorters to gather a material that cannot be utilized, nor shipped abroad, nor stored. The article notes that while some efforts are in place “more collectors and processors are poised to go out of business.” The national Voluntary Product Stewardship Program (VPS) is working to help the recycling entrepreneur community navigate this tough economic cycle while supporting market and product development efforts.
Along with national efforts, CARE’s California Carpet Stewardship Program is working hard to mitigate the situation, with changes to the incentives that support new and existing processors, addition of incentives to increase collection, and support for the creation of markets for post-consumer carpet. A new grant program will support capital projects to improve systems, expand capacity, and provide funds for the testing of new products with PCC content. CARE has expanded outreach to explain the current situation for carpet recycling to stakeholders, and solicited input from stakeholders across the carpet recycling ecosystem.
Read the Floor Daily article here. Sign up here to receive monthly email updates on the California Carpet Stewardship Program.