Carpet America Recovery Effort

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

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CARE Awards First Innovation & Design Grants

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.

See a listing of all CARE grants.

Economic Challenges Impact Q2 2023 California Results

CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples reports: The year 2023 is shaping up to be a challenging one for many in the recycling business. The challenges are associated with the slowing housing market and associated rising interest rates. Generally speaking, demand is down across many industries. Recycling industries are not immune to these economic headwinds and have no influence over what comes next. When the economy slows, companies start to work off inventories, which further depress demand for new materials and thus prices. The prices of most polymers have fallen dramatically in 2023 and especially in the last 4 months.

Now we have the initial wave of a UAW strike which will cause demand for some of the more profitable products we produce to plummet. Already polymer orders are being cancelled. Sales of new carpet, which are the primary source of old carpet to feed recycler operations, were down 15% in Q1 vs 2022 and again down 15% in Q2. These are big drops which also impact the revenue coming in to fund the carpet recycling program. The only positive is that the recycling rate as of the end of June is 35% and well ahead of the 2023 target of 31%. Our general opinion is that this down cycle will not turn around until mid-2024 at the earliest.

See the Q2 2023 results below

California Program 2022 Annual Report Details Tremendous Progress

2022 Annual Report cover imageThe California Carpet Stewardship Progam’s 2022 Annual Report documents remarkable progress in all aspects of carpet recycling. CARE submitted the Program’s 2022 Annual Report to CalRecycle on September 1, 2023.

Among the 2022 highlights:

  • The Program achieved an all-time annual high Recycling Rate of 33.9%, exceeding the 27% Plan goal and reflecting continued annual growth.
  • The Program’s highest-ever Recycling Efficiency (aka Yield) rate of 79% of Gross Collection supports the increased recycling rate and exceeded the Plan goal of 60% Yield.
  • CARE substantially expanded its public Drop-off Sites, adding 39 new sites for a total of 131(and growing; see the Drop-off Site Map.) The Program continued to serve all of California’s 58 counties and met the convenient collection goal of providing at least one site for every 500,000 people in each county. There are also four semi-private sites and over 200 private pickup service locations in the state.
  • Market development efforts resulted in 23 vendors (9 in California) producing 100 products containing post-consumer carpet material, exceeding the Plan goal of 14 vendors and 40 products.

Carpet industry veteran Teddy Stray, who recently joined CARE as a consultant working on multi-family and commercial market segment recycling, noted, “I’ve been in the industry for 25+ years and wish I’d known more about CARE’s work before I came onboard. I’m impressed by all that CARE has accomplished and I’m excited to be part of this dynamic and dedicated team.”

Download the California Carpet Stewardship Program 2022 Annual Report.

CARE Drop-Off Site Pounds Collected to Stay in California

One of the primary goals of the California Carpet Stewardship Program is to increase processor capacity within the state of California, and along with it, associated jobs. The carpet recycling industry is being impacted by headwinds from many fronts, including declining sales, depressed resin market prices, insufficient supply of post-consumer carpet (PCC) to support recycling operations and thus profitability, and weakened demand for PCC materials, among others. CARE’s Sustainable Plan Committee has authorized a carefully considered set of initiatives that are consistent with the approved 2023-2027 California Carpet Stewardship Plan and are also a recommendation of the California Carpet Advisory Committee. The initiatives will impact certain supplemental subsidies and drop-off site collections as follows:

Effective October 1, 2023:

  1. All Public Drop-Off Site pounds will be restricted to California-based processors.

Effective April 1, 2024: 

  1. Out-of-state supplemental processing subsidies (Type 1) will be reduced by 50%
  2. All supplemental collection subsidies will go to zero for any pounds shipped out-of-state.

The above initiatives, which have been reviewed with CalRecycle, will augment other efforts at increasing collections. CARE recognizes that these initiatives will have varying impacts among all recyclers – especially those located out-of-state. At the same time, statutes require the Program to build capacity within the state and to support California’s efforts to build a closed-loop sustainable business model. CARE will continue to closely monitor the situation and consider additional adjustments if necessary.

Program Highlights Sent to Retailers and Installers

program highlights coverCARE has distributed a newsletter that describes the California Carpet Stewardship Program’s programs and remarkable recent progress for retailers and installers. Program highlights detailed include CARE’s work with retailers, installers, manufacturers, processors and local government to increase the amount of carpet collected, kept out of landfill and made into useful new products. It describes how recycling rate, recycled-content product development and collection convenience goals have been met and surpassed.

The Program Highlights newsletter is sent every year to California carpet retailers and flooring contractors.

The CARE California Program Highlights can be viewed here.

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