In This Issue:
- CARE Annual Survey
- Entrepreneur Meeting, October 27, 2006
- StarNet® Partnership
- Tricycle Partnership
- C&A Recycles 100M Pounds of Vinyl and vinyl-backed carpet
- Shaw Industries Wins 2005 GSA Evergreen Award
- Annual Meeting at Callaway Gardens
- New CARE Website – Coming Soon
- GreenBuild Showing November 2005
- Staff News
- CARE Announces Two New Sponsors
- Did You Know…?
- Letters …
Dear CARE Supporters
There has been no loss of momentum in our efforts to find new uses for old carpet. This fall we held our 2nd Entrepreneur’s Conference in Orlando, Florida. Thanks to SWIX and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for their continued support. This year we can also thank Antron® Fibers, StarNet®, Mohawk Industries and Shaw Industries for their support of this important gathering. The energy level and feedback was great.
Speaking of StarNet, our partnership is off to a great start. In the first quarter of 2006 you will see new marketing materials, a case study and additional educational materials from StarNet as we collaboratively build their program. On January 27th we jointly awarded the first StarNet/CARE partnership certificate to Pfizer Corporation in New York City. Pfizer, working with Consolidated Carpet and CarpetCycle, were able to keep more than 145K pounds of old carpet out of the landfill in 2005.
The phone and email “rings daily” with new interest in the recycle of old carpet. The result is a growing list of future collectors and/or users of post consumer carpet. Thus, you won’t want to miss the 2006 Annual Conference at Callaway Gardens this year. Registration is now open. If you are interested in presenting, exhibiting or a sponsorship, contact us ASAP!
Please remember, this newsletter is meant to be a very brief, easy to scan tool to help keep you, our stakeholders, informed of what is going on with CARE. Click on the links or go to the CARE website for more information or drop me a line.
Best regards for a warm spring and see you in Callaway Gardens.
Robert Peoples, Executive Director, Carpet America Recovery Effort
CARE Annual Survey
Matthew Goldman of Weston Solutions is once again coordinating the 2005 CARE Annual Survey. You should have received an e-mail notification of your survey by now. If you have not been notified please contact Matt Goldman ASAP by email . Keep in mind, this survey is completely confidential. No individual company data will be shared with anyone outside Weston Solutions who will only use this data to analyze overall trends.
Entrepreneur Meeting, October 27, 2006
Our 2005 CARE Entrepreneur’s Meeting was a hit. We had 43 participants this year. That’s almost twice last years gathering. Perhaps more importantly about 50% of attendees were new to CARE since our May meeting. Extensive networking took place at this meeting. The hottest topic of discussion was presentations on identification technology. An Excel file will be posted soon to the CARE website with a list of vendors and contact information. The most exciting development since the conference took place is the field trials of a new Axsun identification unit. Stand-by for more information on this exciting development at the May Annual Conference.
StarNet® Partnership
CARE has entered into a partnership with StarNet®, a commercial flooring marketing co-op. Working jointly we are developing a reclamation system for StarNet members with the goal of making it easy and routine. A set of specifications is now available on the StarNet web site that can be downloaded for easy incorporation into project bids. Pfizer Corporation has been working with Consolidated Carpets in NY, a StarNet member, for several years developing cost effective ways to recycle old carpet coming out of their city offices. Pfizer was recognized by StarNet and CARE on January 27th for their 2005 accomplishments of keeping 145K pounds of carpet out of the landfill. We also welcome StarNet as a new Corporate Sponsor of CARE.
see the certificate awarded and a photo
Tricycle Partnership
CARE announced a partnership at Green Build with sustainable design company Tricycle, Inc. to reduce the amount of carpet waste landfilled annually. The CARE Board of Directors recognized Tricycle’s success at reducing unnecessary design waste in the manufacturing process as achieving the same ultimate goal– reducing the amount of carpet landfilled. Tricycle’s services enable manufacturers to design and prototype carpet as well as send samples to architects and interiors designers before physically manufacturing the products. During a 12-month period, based on external product samples sent to architects and designers alone, Tricycle simulation technology prevented more than 50,000 pounds of carpet from making its way to landfill.
Read more about the partnership.
C&A Recycles 100M Pounds of Vinyl and vinyl-backed carpet
C&A Floorcoverings has recycled more than 100,000,000 pounds of reclaimed vinyl and vinyl- backed carpet since introducing its “Infinity Initiative” ten years ago. The program recycles any post- consumer vinyl-backed carpet, regardless of original manufacturer, into 100 percent recycled content backing for new floorcoverings. The company guarantees that all carpet returned to it will be recycled and not landfilled, incinerated, or disposed of in any other way.
Shaw Industries Wins 2005 GSA Evergreen Award
Shaw Industries’ Commercial Division received the 2005 GSA Evergreen Award in the Furnishings category. The award was presented at the Quality Partnership Council meeting recently. The five categories considered in evaluating nominees are:
Waste Prevention
Recycling
Affirmative Procurement
Environmental Preferability
Model Facility
Shaw’s environmental initiatives provide significant contributions in all five categories considered under the GSA Evergreen Award. Most significantly, its EcoWorx carpet tile backing has been optimized through the MBDC protocol, ensuring its safety for human health and the environment. As a cradle to cradle product, EcoWorx can be recycled in a continuous loop, back into its original state.
Annual Meeting at Callaway Gardens
Registration for the 2006 CARE Annual Meeting is now open. The deadline for early registrations is close of business April 7th. We have an exciting line-up of speakers and the list is growing. Jonathan Trivers, a former carpet industry executive, will be our guest speaker on Tuesday night at our annual awards dinner.
The 4th Annual CARE meeting will be held at Callaway Gardens. Most people are aware Callaway has the nation’s first LEED- certified conference center. As an environmental organization our primary goal is carpet recovery, but we recognize it is impossible to be an effective environmental steward if we ignore all other potential environmental conflicts associated with CARE’s operations. Not only are we thrilled to be returning to Callaway Gardens again, but we have also partnered with the Leonardo Academy to positively enhance the 4th Annual CARE Conference’s environmental impact. Our event this year will be Cleaner and Greener!
Meeting registration and details may be found at the CARE website
Learn more about the Leonardo Academy
New CARE Website – Coming Soon
We are please to announce a newly revamped CARE website will be coming on line at the Annual Conference in May. Working with our new CARE Member, Tricycle Inc., we are building an exciting, dynamic new site. Among other features it will have an impact calculator and track diversion. Make sure you place a reminder on your calendar for early May!
GreenBuild Showing November 2005
GreenBuild was bigger and better again this year and it was held right here in Atlanta, GA – carpet capital of the world. CARE shared booth space with the CRI and had excellent traffic. Numerous interviews were arranged to tell the CARE story and share product information. As a result of the excellent exposure for NYCORE, they have agreed to share the cost of our booth for 2006 in Denver. The booth will be a “house” built from NYCORE materials. Inside we will house samples and literature for CARE members. The scale of the 2006 booth will further enhance our credibility.
On another note, NYCORE’s Tile Backerboard was named one the Top-10 building products at the Green Build event.
Staff News
What is staff news? Well CARE is proud to announce the first official addition to our staff. Mr. Jeremy Stroop has joined CARE as a part-time associate. Jeremy is a former Army Sergeant and currently a student at Dalton State College where he will be completing his BS degree later this year in Marketing Systems.
Please be sure to say hello to Jeremy at Callaway in May!
CARE Announces Two New Sponsors
CARE is excited to announce the addition of two new corporate sponsors to the growing carpet reclamation movement. Leigh Fibers and Masland Contract have both joined the team.
Leigh Fibers, Inc. is proudly positioned as a leading manufacturer in the recycled fiber industry, serving the mattress, furniture, carpet underlay, mop yarn, casket, nonwoven, automotive and many other markets. Leigh Fibers buys, trades, reprocesses and sells fiber waste and by- product material from the textile, fiber, apparel and carpet industries, linters from cotton seed oil mills and other products. Leigh markets reprocessed and staple polyester, cotton, polypropylene, rayon, acrylic, nylon, and aramid fibers in a wide range of blends and qualities.
Masland Contract has waste elimination programs in place that include the reduction in the amount of custom samples produced in the preliminary stages of product selection. Masland has instituted recyclable CAD renderings to assist the design community in its selection process before moving to a full-scale custom sample. This measure will eliminate more than 30,000 pounds of yarn waste per year. Once selection is made and the samples are produced, Masland Contract offers a sample recycling program for customers to return their samples for recycling.
Another initiative includes the reclamation of waste yarn by rewinding short ends of yarn at the completion of a production cycle. After combining short lots, the yarn can be returned to the manufacturing process for tufting. This single act will keep more than 330,000 pounds of yarn per year from being discarded outside the recyclable chain.
Masland also began sending all of their manufacturing waste from their Area Rug manufacturing facility to Invista’s Reclamation Center in Calhoun, GA. This diverts approximately 100,000 pounds of post-industrial carpet from the landfill. Uses for the reclaimed carpet range from manufacturing of padding for under carpet, automobile parts and roof shingles among other products.
DID YOU KNOW…?
If today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116 square miles of rainforest, or about an acre a second.
Today the human population will increase by 250,000.
If our numbers are correct, today we will add another 13M pounds of old carpet to the landfill. That equates to over 10,000 barrels of oil per day in energy equivalents. But, we are also diverting 400K pounds per day of old carpet from the landfill as CARE initiatives continue to grow.
The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400. (We should be able to do carpet recycle for a lot less.)
Do you have an interesting story or factoid about recycling carpet? Send it to CARE by email and if we use it we will send you a CARE mug to proudly display.
Letters…
Diana Brown writes:
Great newsletter! I read all of it and that is unusual for me. I generally just skim for the highlights, but this was all highlights. Just had to take a few minutes to let you know how much I enjoyed reading the newsletter. (Fall 2005 edition)
Nelson Smith, Leigh Fibers, writes:
I attended the CARE conference last year and it was the first time anyone from Leigh Fibers had been. It was a great conference and I want to go again this year.
We would like your feedback on this newsletter, ideas, concerns, or questions. We’ll include them in future newsletters.
Thanks!