The CARE California Carpet Stewardship Program has awarded $200,000 under round two of its Innovation & Design (I&D) cycle, which 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.

The University of California Davis was awarded $100,000 to explore the reformulation of Visions Recycling’s PCC-content lightweight aggregate in construction applications while completing a business case and lifecycle analysis of the material versus traditional cement. The project lead is Sabbie Miller, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is also a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Visions Recycling is based in Sacramento and is a CARE Capital Improvements and Product Testing grantee.

Arizona State University was awarded $100,000 to research the inclusion of PET fiber in concrete applications; this project originally began under a CARE Product Testing Grant to CMJ Systems, Inc. The work will include any remaining preparations to create a market-ready product. The project lead is Narayanan Neithalath, Fulton Professor of Structural Materials in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

Both projects will run through the 2024-25 academic year.

CARE plans to release another round of Innovation & Design grant funding this fall and the Micro Grants for Collection/Reuse program remains open on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please visit the CARE grants webpage or email Abbie Beane, CARE grants manager, at ABeane@CarpetRecovery.org.