Carpet America Recovery Effort

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

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CARE Grantees Contribute to Attaining 2022 Program Goals

 

woman with carpet tile
A 2022 CARE micro grant to Repurpose.Earth paid for equipment that enables this Inglewood-based business to create a more efficient and larger tile reuse operation.

In 2022, CARE’s California Carpet Stewardship Program continued to invest in new infrastructure and ideas in order to increase California’s carpet recycling and collection capacity as well as seed research to increase post-consumer carpet (PCC) collection volume and product recyclability. As a result, in 2022:

  • CARE made awards to two capital improvement grantees totaling approximately $650,000 along with five micro grantees totaling more than $61,000.
  • Three new PCC collectors and one new reuse entity came online as a result of the micro grants program, helping CARE to meet its 2022 convenient collection and reuse goals. One other awardee is testing new fiber-identification technology and will share insights with the carpet recycling community.
  • CARE made a $50,000 award under its New Collection Strategies/Small Infrastructure Award Pilot Program to investigate the impact and cost of collection from smaller sources. Results will be shared in CARE’s 2022 Annual Report.
  • The Program launched Innovation & Design Grants to seed projects that create more recyclable carpet constructions and environmentally preferable PCC-content products. Awards will be announced in May 2023.
  • Grant-funded capital projects begun in 2022 or earlier resulted in nearly 40 million pounds of recycled output or PCC in finished secondary products, along with more than 25 million additional pounds of PCC collected for recycling or reused.
  • Micro grantees awarded in 2022 or earlier collected or reused over 4.2 million pounds of California-sourced PCC.

The Program’s Cycle 5M, Micro Grants for Collection/Reuse (up to $15,000 per project), is open to California-based entities until further notice; interested parties may apply through CARE’s easy-to-use online grant application form.

CARE anticipates launching new cycles of its Capital Grants and Testing Grants programs in May or June 2023.

For questions about the CARE grants program, please email Abbie Beane, CARE grants manager, at ABeane@CarpetRecovery.org or visit CarpetRecovery.org/CA-Grants

CARE Names 2022 Persons of the Year

CARE announced winners of the Persons of the Year Awards for 2022 on April 26th in conjunction with the organization’s 21st Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. The 2022 Persons of the Year are Joe Yarbrough and Wyatt Rollins.

persons of the year Wyatt Rollins and Joe Yarbrough
Pictured, l to r: Persons of the Year Wyatt Rollins and Joe Yarbrough with CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples at CARE’s 21st Annual Conference.

Joe Yarbrough was named President of the Carpet and Rug Institute in 2014. He went to CRI from Mohawk Industries, where he had served as senior vice president for advanced manufacturing engineering. Earlier in his career, Yarbrough spent six years with Coronet Industries and was later vice president for manufacturing for Aladdin Mills when that company merged with Mohawk in 1994

Wyatt Rollins has been a respected and quiet force in the carpet recycling world for many years. In addition to his variety of roles at Shaw Industries, he has been an active member of the CARE Board and Sustainable Plan Committee for years and currently serves as CARE’s Chair.

Executive Director Bob Peoples noted, “The industry’s accomplishments come down to the efforts of a lot of smart, hardworking folks. It’s a pleasure to be able to recognize these winners for their contributions to the success of us all.”

The well-attended Conference showcased recent developments for the carpet recycling industry, recycling technology, the ID equipment challenge, Extended Producer Responsibility, and new products and markets. The Conference welcomed international visitors from Australia, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom and conference feedback has been uniformly positive.

 

Carpet Differential Assessment to Increase April 1, 2023

By email dated March 17, 2023, CalRecycle directed CARE to increase the carpet differential assessment effective April 1, 2023. This increase is necessary to ensure the financial health of the carpet recycling industry in California.

The new assessment levels are:

assessment table
The increase is necessary to protect the California Carpet Stewardship Program, including the financial stability of our collectors, processors, and recyclers. This CalRecycle directive follows several months of requests by CARE for CalRecycle approval of an assessment increase to extend program solvency. CalRecycle has represented to CARE that the present assessment increase comports with the contingency plan currently in effect and does not require prior approval of a new five-year plan.

Retailers are encouraged to contact their mill representatives for further detail on how the assessment increase will be rolled out.

The assessments are based on two factors:

  • Broadloom vs. carpet tile. All broadloom (residential and commercial) will be
    treated the same.
  • Post-Consumer Content. Another provision of the law requires that we provide recognition of carpet products containing post-consumer (PC) content.
    This requirement is reflected in the assessment being reduced by
    2 cents/yd2for any product, broadloom or carpet tile, that has 10% or more certified PC content. Carpet mills are responsible for advising retailers on which products qualify in terms of post-consumer content.

NOTE: Compliance with the assessments is compulsory under California law.

California carpet stewardship legislation requires CARE to implement a differential assessment on each square yard of carpet that reflects its cost burden to recycle. The assessment funds the subsidies for collection, processing and recycling of carpet and carpet tile, along with technical assistance, drop-off site support and education/outreach.

CalRecycle provides oversight and enforcement of California’s carpet stewardship law. CalRecycle evaluates compliance through various means including, but not limited to, site inspections and documentation checks. Failure to comply with requirements of the carpet law and/or submitting false or misleading information may result in penalties of up to $10,000 per day. See details about the carpet stewardship law and monitor updates.

CalRecycle requires:

  • All invoices must have the assessment clearly and correctly labeled as a separate line item.
  • Retailers must purchase carpet from carpet manufacturers in compliance with the carpet stewardship law. See the list on the CalRecycle website here: ca.gov/Carpet/MfrBrands
  • Retailers are required by law to monitor CalRecycle’s website to determine if the sale of a manufacturer’s carpet is in compliance with the carpet stewardship law.
  • Retailers must retain records for three years.

Comments, concerns, and suggestions may be sent to CalRecycle at Carpet@CalRecycle.ca.gov and to CARE at Feedback@CarpetRecovery.org.

Record Results in 2022 for California Carpet Stewardship Program

The California Carpet Stewardship Program has racked up some amazing achievements in 2022, including an unheard-of carpet recycling rate of 33 percent for 2022. This far exceeds the 27 percent goal set in the Program’s Five-Year Plan, and the California carpet recycling rate has more than tripled since 2015.

recycling rate chart thru 2022

Since the pandemic, the Program’s growth has accelerated. All this was made possible thanks to the amazing group of passionate recyclers working in partnership with a dedicated CARE staff.

In addition to the recycling rate performance, in 2022 for the first time in its 11-year history, the California Carpet Stewardship Program achieved or surpassed all of the Program’s annual goals, including:

Achieving 76% recycling efficiency rate, passing the goal of 75%. Recycling efficiency refers to the amount of collected carpet that is transformed into recycled products.
130 public drop off sites
Supporting 131 public drop-off sites, in addition to the over 200 private sites across the state. Public drop-off sites increased pounds collected by 33% over 2021.
100 products made with recycled carpet
Promoting some 100 products made from recycled-carpet material.

 

2 million pounds of carpet reusedMeeting the carpet reuse goal of two million pounds.

 

CARE Submits Revised Five-Year Plan to CalRecycle

Plan coverOn January 17, 2023 CARE submitted a revised Five-Year Plan for the California Carpet Stewardship Program to CalRecycle. The revised Plan responds to CalRecycle’s disapproval of the Plan as submitted in September. “It is our hope that CalRecycle moves swiftly to accept the revised Plan so that we can continue the remarkable progress that we have been making,” noted CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples. “CARE is on track to meet all of the goals set by CalRecycle for 2022 despite enormous challenges, and we need to move swiftly to implement the 2023-27 Plan in order to achieve the goals for this year.”

Peoples added, “In particular, we need to implement the differential assessment increase, originally planned for January, which CalRecycle did not approve. We now are targeting an increase on April 1,2023 and that decision will depend on CalRecycle’s approval of the revised Plan no later than mid-March. Watch for additional information on the increase shortly.”

CalRecycle requests that public comments on CARE’s Revised Plan be submitted to CalRecycle by January 27, 2023. CARE is asking all retailers, mills, and recyclers to please take a few minutes to submit comments of strong, unequivocal support for the Plan.

View the Plan here and submit comments to CalRecycle at Carpet@CalRecycle.ca.gov.

 

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