The Texas Recycling Data Initiative (TRDI) is a collaborative effort to measure recycling in the state of Texas. The effort was initiated by a consortium of many stakeholders and is led by the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR). The goal of TRDI is to quantify the amount of recycling in Texas to examine environmental, economic and policy issues of interest to businesses, citizens and governmental agencies. In addition, TRDI seeks to establish a baseline recycling rate to measure future progress.
TRDI’s most recent report, which CARE supported, summarizes the results of a groundbreaking statewide study of recycling in Texas. Click here to view the complete report.
Page 27 provides an update on textile recycling, which includes materials such as clothing, footwear, linens and carpet. According to Project Team research, the vast majority of discarded clothing, footwear and linens is donated or otherwise reused. Therefore, the primary material recycled in this category is carpet.
Recycled carpet must be recovered directly by a collector that specializes in recycling carpet. Carpet cannot be commingled with other construction and demolition materials. To collect data on recycled carpet, the Project Team worked with CARE to aggregate data from carpet collectors in Texas. In addition, the Project Team, along with industry representatives, contacted carpet manufacturing facilities outside of Texas to gather information on direct-to-mill material.
CARE collected data from carpet recyclers in Texas and provided information from 80 percent of the companies in Texas. In addition, the Project Team received direct-to-mill information from three large carpet manufacturers. Therefore, the numbers presented include a very complete understanding of carpet recycling in Texas.