Carpet America Recovery Effort

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

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One Billion Pounds of Carpet Collected in California: A Milestone

carpet being torn out as 1 billion pound milestone reached
As America Recycles Day approaches on November 15, CARE has now passed the one billion pound milestone for gross collection of old carpet in California since the start of the California Carpet Stewardship Program in 2011. This hard-to-recycle product, made largely from fossil fuels, presents many challenges for collection and recycling, but at a time when many other materials’ recycling rates are declining, one billion pounds collected demonstrates remarkable progress.

 

“At a time of strain on the recycling industry, this milestone is an amazing accomplishment that is due to the hard work and dedication of retailers, contractors and recyclers across the state,” noted CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples. “This is one billion pounds of material that would have gone to waste and instead will see new life in new products. We are delighted to announce this landmark in conjunction with America Recycles Day.”

 

Carpet can be recycled when properly prepared and brought to a drop-off site that takes carpet for processing and recycling. The challenge is capturing the carpet for recycling before it goes to landfill. The California Carpet Stewardship Program works to increase collection of carpet by enabling and encouraging carpet collection from homeowners, contractors, retailers and collector/sorters. 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.

 

CARE’s California carpet collection efforts are funded through an assessment paid by consumers on every square yard of carpet sold in the state, as passed into law (AB 2398) in 2010.

Four New Capital Grants to Fund Collection/Recycling

CARE’s California Carpet Stewardship Program has awarded four additional grants, totaling $1.14 million, through its 2021 Capital Improvements cycle (labeled Cycle 5A). Cycle 5A funds are designated for infrastructure to establish and improve California-sourced post-consumer carpet (PCC) collection, processing and manufacturing into end products.

Cycle 5A awardees are:

  • Circular Polymers in Lincoln, CA ($450,000) for additional equipment to process commercial broadloom carpet and tile, including traditionally hard-to-recycle polyurethane-backed tile.
  • Hayward Transfer Station in Hayward, CA ($50,000) for additional containers to service flooring retailers in the Bay Area.
  • Aquafil Carpet Recycling 2 in Woodland, CA ($192,000) for the purchase of equipment that will improve its PET material for a wider variety of end markets.
  • RISE Composite Technologies in Mankato, MN ($450,000) for equipment that will assist a California processor in shipping significant quantities of PCC to its manufacturing facility, which produces a wide variety of consumer building products.

These new capital projects anticipate recycling or collecting an additional 15 million pounds of PCC annually once fully operational.

For more information about CARE’s grant program, please visit our California grants webpage.

CalRecycle Actions on Recent CARE Documents – Correction

The following is a corrected version of an article that ran in the September e-news:

On August 27th CalRecycle’s Director signed a Request for Approval (RFA) with the following results:

  • Conditional approval of the Carpet Differential Assessment Plan with requirements to be addressed within 60 days (October 26th).
  • Convenient Collection Plan did not meet requirements, therefore CalRecycle staff were directed to adjust the program goals.

The documents that CARE submitted can be found here and CalRecycle’s  RFA can be downloaded here.

CARE is revising its Carpet Differential Assessment Plan and will resubmit it to CalRecycle by October 26th.

CARE Thanks Jacy Bolden; California Program Director Position Available

CARE thanks Jacy Bolden for her sterling work as California Program Director.

CARE California Program Director Jacy Bolden will be leaving her position at the end of this month. CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples commented “Jacy has done a wonderful job over her more than three years with CARE. Her quick study, no-nonsense approach and deep understanding has helped us achieve many of our objectives. She was offered an outstanding career opportunity and we wish her all the best – she will really be missed.”

The California Program Director position is open for applicants. Qualified and interested candidates are invited to see the full position description and application link here.

CARE intends to fill the opening as soon as a qualified candidate can be selected. Until that time, CARE is pleased to announce that Grants Manager Abbie Beane will serve in the position of Interim California Program Director as of October 1 and can be reached at ABeane@CarpetRecovery.org.

California’s Carpet Recycling Program Annual Report Shows Improving Recycling Rate, Yield and Technological Advances

Cover of California Carpet Stewardship Program 2020 Annual Report
California Carpet Stewardship Program’s 2020 Annual Report

At a time of immense strain on recycling efforts across the country, carpet recycling saw significant progress in 2020 in California, according to the just-released California Carpet Stewardship Program 2020 Annual Report. The California Program achieved an all-time program high recycling rate of 23.2 percent in Q4 2020, with an overall annual recycling rate of 21 percent in 2020. While it did not meet the target 24 percent goal, the recycling rate for this fossil-fuel-based material is up 107% in the past five years.

68 percent of the carpet collected in California was recycled in 2020. This percentage, called the yield, has grown dramatically over the life of the program from just 28 percent 9 years ago, thanks to expanded processing capacity, growing markets for post-consumer carpet materials and technological advances. Major market development efforts, particularly in the creation of a market for carpet backing material, also known as PC4, has led to this outstanding 68 percent yield rate.
53 foot truck for recycling carpet with CARE logo
in the past five years alone, 292 million pounds of discarded carpet was kept out of California landfills – equivalent to more than 10,000 fully-loaded 53-foot trailers – and recycled into useful new products.

CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples notes, “We are incredibly proud of the determination and resilience shown by the California carpet recycling community. Thanks to their efforts, in the past five years alone, 292 million pounds of discarded carpet was kept out of California landfills – equivalent to more than 10,000 full-loaded 53-foot trailers of carpet – and recycled into useful new products.

According to the California Carpet Stewardship Program’s 2020 Annual Report:
  • The California Program achieved an all-time program high recycling rate of 23.2 percent in Q4, with an overall annual recycling rate of 21 percent in 2020. This is short of the Program’s 24 percent goal but reflects steady year-over-year compounded growth of 20% per year, despite a global pandemic and other challenges, while other materials’ recycling rates have declined.
  • 67 million pounds of post-consumer carpet was diverted from California landfills.
  • 53 million pounds of recycled output was produced.
  • Over 72 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions (MTC02E) was saved.
  • $16.9 million in subsidies supported collectors, processors and manufacturers of recycled carpet material.
  • Nearly $1.1 million in grant funding was paid in 2020. Since 2017, CARE has paid over $8 million to grow carpet recycling via grants for capital improvement, product testing and expansion of collection.
In addition, CARE’s prompt and multi-faceted emergency COVID-19 Action Plan has provided critical support to the industry as it faces the economic and operational challenges of 2020. The Action Plan included special payouts in 2020 totaling $1.6 million to Collector/Sorters, Processors, and Manufacturers, credited with saving the industry from disaster.

 

Collection of carpet is a vital part of the recycling process. By the end of 2020, there were 83 CARE-sponsored public Drop-off Sites in 54 counties (an increase of 150 percent in number of sites from 2016), in addition to the over 230 private collection sites in the state.

 

Through subsidies, grants and technical assistance, CARE supports increased collection and processing of carpet into products containing recycled carpet material. Twenty-four vendors currently incorporate carpet in 76 products for a variety of industrial and retail applications, including automotive plastic components, rubber transition mats, building materials, and absorbency products.
Watch video for highlights of recent progress:

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