Our highly anticipated Person of the Year and Recycler of the Year have been chosen! Thomas Holland of Texas Carpet Recycling and Wellman Plastics Recycling have received these honors, respectively, during our 12th annual conference in Seattle.

Person of the Year
CARE’s 2014 Person of the Year, Thomas Holland, is a CARE board member and founder of Texas Carpet and Construction Recycling (TCR).

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Corporate Floors, TCR was established in 2007 as the first carpet recycling company in Texas. The organization now has a 32,000-square-foot facility where it regularly sorts, bales and grinds carpet from dozens of companies.

In 2013 alone, TCR diverted more than 1.6 million square-feet (equivalent to 803,856 pounds) of carpet from landfill. TCR also finds responsible end-of-life solutions for VCT, ceiling tiles and other post-construction materials.

In his role as a CARE Board member he has been a vocal advocate for the collector/sorter entrepreneur communicate, the backbone of carpet recycling industry. Thomas has worked tirelessly to find solutions to the challenges faced by the young industry. 

CARE’s Executive Director stated, “Thomas has brought a voice of reason and a sense of stability during turbulent times.” 

Left to right: Brendan McSheehy (CARE Chairman of the Board), Thomas Holland, Bob Peoples (CARE Executive Director)

Recycler of the Year 
Wellman Plastics Recycling (WPR) is a CARE partner and one of North America’s leading compounders and suppliers of engineering and thermoplastic resins.

WPR currently collects more than 100 million pounds of post-consumer carpet per year and processes the material into nylon, polyester and polypropylene resin products. The company is also actively developing recycling solutions for non-nylon carpet, a challenging post-consumer material.

In addition to its landfill diversion efforts, WPR has restarted and invested in several key recycling facilities, and now employs more than 700 workers. 

Left to right: Joe Smith (Wellman Plastics Recycling), Brendan McSheehy, Glenn Odom (Wellman Plastics Recycling), Bob Peoples

“This year’s winners aren’t just good stewards of the environment, they accept historical challenges for carpet recycling and respond with tangible solutions for our industry,” said Bob Peoples, executive director of CARE. “Our organization is making huge strides forward because of the influence of individuals and organizations like Thomas Holland and Wellman Plastics Recycling.”