Carpet can be recycled when properly prepared and brought to a drop-off site that takes carpet for processing and recycling. One challenge is capturing the carpet for recycling before it goes to landfill.

Since 2011 CARE has been the organization implementing the California Carpet Stewardship Program under California law AB 2398. The California Carpet Stewardship Program works to increase collection of carpet by enabling and encouraging carpet collection from homeowners, contractors, retailers and carpet installers. CARE also supports the development of markets for recycled carpet material, which is now included in a variety of products, including automotive parts, house trim and siding, insulation, accessibility ramps, even bullet-resistant walls and doors. Recent years have shown remarkable advances in the amount of carpet collected – 147 public drop off sites (as of December 2023) with locations in every county and over 180 private collection points. The collected material is recycled into useful new products.

Among the achievements:

The California Carpet Stewardship Program has achieved an unheard-of carpet recycling rate of 35 percent for 2023. For the second year running, this far exceeds the goal (31 percent) set in the Program’s Five-Year Plan; the California carpet recycling rate is up 84 percent in five years and has more than tripled since 2015. This recycling rate for carpet has not been achieved anywhere else in the world. Since the program started, CARE recyclers have collected more than 650,000 tons (more than a billion pounds) of old carpet.

Other milestones: