Carpet America Recovery Effort

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CARE Names 2021 Recyclers & Persons of the Year

Dalton, GA, May 3, 2022 – CARE announced winners of the Recycler and Person of the Year Awards for 2021 today in conjunction with the organization’s 20th Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The 2021 Recyclers of the Year are Georgia Carpet Recovery Center (East Point, GA) and GreenWaste Carpet Recycling (San Jose, CA). The 2021 Persons of the Year are Nick Fiore of Circular Polymers (Lincoln, CA) and Kent Singleton of Georgia Carpet Recovery Center. Executive Director Bob Peoples noted, “This year’s award winners have demonstrated true commitment in the face of relentless challenges. And many of those challenges continue to evolve today.”

 

2021 Recyclers of the Year:

Georgia Carpet Recovery Center
Founded by Amir Sahebivani in 1995, Georgia Carpet Recovery Center has been actively reducing landfill by providing cost-effective, environmentally-sound carpet and pad recycling services since 1995. In 2018 alone, the facility processed more than 18 million pounds of post-consumer carpet and carpet pad. “Georgia Carpet Recovery Center brought vital services to the heartland of the carpet recycling industry,” stated Bob Peoples. “They have evolved and adapted over the last 20 years to stay in business and exhibit the true entrepreneurial spirt on which this country is built.”

 

Wes Nelson of GreenWaste accepting award
Wes Nelson accepting for GreenWaste Carpet Recycling

GreenWaste Carpet Recycling

GreenWaste Recovery opened GreenWaste Carpet Recycling in 2012 to collect, analyze, sort and process post-consumer carpeting, foam carpet padding, commercial broadloom carpet and carpet tiles throughout Northern California. “GreenWaste Carpet Recycling is a vital partner to the California Carpet Stewardship Program,” said Bob Peoples. “Their state-of-the-art handling facility supports the aggressive growth we need to continue expanding this Program. The discipline they bring as a large player in the recycling, composting, and collection system are a critical contributor for support to the carpet recycling community.”

 

2021 Persons of the Year:

Nick Fiore of Circular Polymers accepting Person of the Year 2021

Nick Fiore is president of 2019 Recycler of the Year, Circular Polymers. Nick has been an active member of the carpet industry since 1997. He developed and evolved many carpet recycling technologies to explore best practices. As an entrepreneur and financier, Nick has owned and operated five carpet recycling facilities. Prior to carpet recycling, Nick owned and operated 2pl logistics companies. Nick leads Circular Polymers in their mission to revolutionize the post-consumer carpet recycling industry. He is an active member of CARE. “Nick brings a wealth of financial and logistical experience to the management team at Circular Polymers,” said Bob Peoples. “Under his watchful eye, Circular Polymers is the fastest growing carpet recycler in North America, bringing needed innovation to the challenges faced by this industry.”

 

Kent Singleton
Kent Singleton retired from General Motors in September 2006 after 32 years of service. He then joined Georgia Carpet Processing (later Georgia Carpet Recovery Center) with a mission to improve output and reduce the ash content from 15 percent. The production goals were achieved quickly, but it took over two years to reduce the ash content to less than 5 percent. Bob Peoples noted, “Kent demonstrates the true grit of an American entrepreneur. Under relentless pressure, he has steered his company through major market upheaval. Times are tough for carpet recycling and Kent has found innovation ways to keep the mission alive.”

Marketing, Education & Outreach RFP for California Program Posted

The California Carpet Stewardship Program of CARE is soliciting two-year proposals for marketing, education, and outreach professional services to help CARE achieve meaningful progress toward the goal of increasing carpet recycling in the state of California. A successful contractor will be innovative and flexible in engaging and supporting carpet recycling stakeholders, partners, and their public audience. The proposal is open to California-based private corporations, small businesses, and non-profit organizations.

The selected contractor will undertake education and outreach efforts to support the overall Program goals. These activities include both planned and timed outreach as well as opportunistic outreach as information and events require. Audiences include retailers, installers, drop-off sites, local government, current and potential grantees, Collector/Sorters, Processors, Manufacturers, Carpet Mills, events, and consumers.

Proposals are due May 31, 2022, with work starting January 3, 2023.

See the full Request for Proposals here.

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. 

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