Californians are recycling more carpet

A California Carpet Stewardship Program annual report released by the Dalton, Georgia-based Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) indicates the Golden State’s carpet recycling rate has risen 58 percent from 2014 to 2019. In that same time frame, says CARE, California’s overall materials recycling rate has been on the decline.

The progress in California comes “at a time of immense strain on recycling efforts across the country,” says CARE. As an update, the group also says its own “prompt and multifaceted COVID-19 Action Plan has provided critical support to the industry as it faces the economic and operational challenges of 2020.”

The California Carpet Stewardship Program’s "2019 Annual Report" claims the carpet recycling rate in the state was 19 percent in 2019, an increase of 27 percent from the 2018 figure. The national carpet recycling rate in 2019 was just 5 percent.

The same report determined that 41,000 tons of postconsumer carpet was collected before it could go to landfill in California, and 70 percent of what was collected was recycled. In 2018, just 53 percent of the carpeting collected in California was recycled.

Various recycling and manufacturing processes were able to create 29,000 tons of recycled-content materials from the carpeting collected and diverted from landfill in California in 2019.

“The 70 percent recycling rate, or yield, has grown significantly over the life of the program due to investments in product testing and processing capacity, growth in markets for postconsumer carpet materials and various technological advances,” CARE states.

CARE says it uses a combination of subsidies, grants and technical assistance, to support the increased collection and processing of carpet into products containing recycled carpet material. It says it knows of 25 vendors who currently incorporate carpet into 77 products for the automotive, construction and other industries.

“2019 was a banner year for the carpet recycling industry in California,” states CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples. “Rising recycling rates, exciting technological innovations such as chemical recycling, growing markets and improved efficiency led to our most optimistic outlook in years. We are facing the challenges of 2020 with new determination and see encouraging signs. We actually did better in the second quarter – during maximum shelter-in-place orders – and now believe we are moving in the right direction for the second half of 2020. Feedback from the recycling community indicates the COVID-19 Action Plan has made a major difference in cash flow and their ability to continue to operate.”

Beginning in March, CARE’s oversight committee approved a series of emergency actions to support and assist the California carpet recycling industry as effects of the pandemic threatened the industry’s survival. Those actions included payments to recyclers in March and June, along with increased subsidy payments to recyclers, an accelerated payment schedule and relaxed reporting and proposed loan payment requirements, says CARE. A total of $1.6 million has been provided to 15 recyclers, “easing the pressure and allowing businesses to focus core efforts around collection and processing,” according to the association.

The 2019 California Carpet Stewardship Program Annual Report can be viewed on this web page.