Carpet America Recovery Effort

Developing Market Based Solutions for the Recycling & Reuse of Post-Consumer Carpet

/ Archives for California

Installer Training Video Unveiled

Flooring contractors are a vital part of the carpet recycling ecosystem.  CARE is partnering with International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 16 (DC 16 in northern California) and District Council 36 (DC 36 in southern California) to incorporate carpet recycling information in their trainings.

 CARE has been working with DC 16 and DC 36 to create and implement a training program for apprentice and journeymen flooring contractors. To supplement in-person training of apprentices, CARE has created a video that reinforces the reasons for recycling, explains the recycling process and the role that installers/contractors play, and shows what recycled carpet becomes:

Union trainees are given a quiz following their training to reinforce the video’s messages.

 If you would like more information about flooring contractor training, contact CARE (CA@carpetrecovery.org).

 

CA Program Meets and Exceeds Targets in 2021

Initial statistics show that the California Carpet Stewardship Program again made significant progress in 2021. In a Program milestone, the Q4 2021 Recycling Rate was 28.7 percent, which brings the 2021 annual Recycling Rate to 27.9 percent, exceeding the target for the first time. This makes six straight years of recycling rate increases, with an average growth of 27.7 percent per year. Overall collections were up 14 percent in 2021 and CARE’s public Drop-Off Site network collections increased by 25 percent. Recycling efficiency (also known as yield) met the target of 75 percent.

CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples hailed the success, “Despite the on-going COVID disruptions (labor costs and availability, transportation costs, supply chain disruptions, decreasing carpet sales), the carpet recycling program has continued to grow due to the hard work of the recycling community. Expansion plans for new capacity, collections and new markets are on track for 2022. The Program is working well, and growth continues as we begin the process of defining the next Five-Year Plan, which will be submitted in late summer.”

See the full Q4 presentation here:

2021 Grants Have Major Impact

photo of carpet tile being wrapped for transport
A $15,000 CARE micro grant allowed flooring installer union DC 16  to purchase a carpet tile wrapping machine to package tile for recycling.

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. 

CARE Launches New Collection Strategies/Small Infrastructure Award Pilot

CARE has launched a new grant program aimed at increasing the convenience and amount of post-consumer carpet collection. The New Collection Strategies/Small Infrastructure Award Pilot Program will provide funding for new initiatives and strategies that will increase, improve and enhance the collection of California-generated post-‑consumer carpet (PCC) or introduce strategies to significantly increase current PCC collection from locations not currently recycling with CARE or CARE partners. The precise focus of this Program is subject to adjustment by CARE, consistent with the overall goals of the Program.

Program applications are due no later than March 31, 2022.

For complete details and application procedure, see the CARE Grants web page.

California Program: Q3 2021 Results Show Progress

Following on a solid performance in Q1 and Q2 2021, the California Program’s recycling rate for Q3 2021 was 28 percent, indicating that CARE could meet its target of 26 percent for the year – a major program accomplishment. The recycling rate is based on the amount of carpet recycled as a percent of carpet discarded, not as a percent of carpet collected. In Q3, 78% of carpet collected was recycled.
  • Gross collection increased to 24.9 million pounds for Q3.
  • However, recycler costs have escalated dramatically for transportation, labor, utilities and lease rates.
  • Subsidies paid to recyclers reached over $6.1 million.
View the quarterly presentation:

 

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