New SF Company Recycling Carpets

A new company, based in San Francisco, is targeting the 5.4 billion pounds of carpet that is disposed of every year in the United States.

The company, SF Carpet Recycling, was launched Nov. 5. The owner of the facility, Ellen Raynor, also is the owner of a retail carpet store in the Lake Tahoe area. The goal of the facility is to provide carpet recycling services at less than the cost of dumping fees.

While the city of San Francisco presently has a 69 percent diversion rate, the city’s goal is to reach 75 percent by 2010. To reach that level, the city is targeting increased recycling of materials such as carpeting.

To ensure that it is reaching as many consumers as possible, SFCR has also launched a partnership with Shaw Industries, the largest carpet producer in the world. Shaw’s Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility employs technology that recycles post consumer nylon carpet back to its original material. As a result, Nylon 6 carpets can be recycled into new carpet repeatedly.