Hicksville, N.Y.—Carpet padding or cushion represents one of our nation’s most efficient closed-loop recycling efforts. The formal name for recycled carpet padding is bonded polyurethane foam, or rebond carpet padding. You can’t mistake it. It’s the multi-colored padding made up of chopped and shredded pieces—pieces of used broadloom padding combined with post-industrial polyurethane foam scrap. According to the Carpet Cushion Council (CCC), recycled carpet padding now accounts for 80% of all carpet padding sold in the United States.

As reported by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, more than 50% of all used and removed carpet padding in the United States is recycled and utilized to make new rebond carpet padding, This level of recycling now approaches the success of aluminum can recycling in the U.S. today which, according to the Aluminum Association, in 1998 recycled 63% of all aluminum beverage cans shipped. The national estimate of recycled, post-consumer carpet padding waste amounts to 62,500 tons per year. That’s enough used carpet padding to create a 50-ft. wide roll stretching from Los Angeles to New York (or enough to cover 12,000 football fields), a significant amount of waste that could otherwise end up in landfills.

Producing recycled carpet padding involves the efforts of a number of industries and businesses working together, including carpeting and padding installers, retailers, waste brokers, padding manufacturers, and padding recycling companies. There are approximately 200 carpet padding recycling companies in the United States. These companies collect, bale and ship used carpet padding to more than 30 U.S. factories where it is converted into new rebond carpet padding. One of these padding recycling companies is run by Mike Trick, president of Cushion Recyclers in Louisville and Lexington, Ky., and Kennesaw, Ga. Trick also operates a wholesale flooring accessories company. “Much of the used carpet padding we receive is brought directly to one of our locations from carpet installers and contractors within a 20 to 25 mile radius,” explained Trick.

“Individuals weigh their scrap padding using a truck, pallet or conveyor scale and are paid between 5- and 10-cents per pound. Convenient Disposal “We also receive used padding from collection bins located at retail carpeting and flooring accessories stores throughout our operating regions,” he added. “While installers and contractors are not paid for the used padding they drop off, the bins do provide a convenient disposal site for them as they stop to pick up carpeting and flooring supplies. “The stores also benefit from our bin system,” explained Trick. “The collection bins not only offer their installer and contractor customers a convenient disposal site for used padding, they also serve the same purpose for the store’s installation teams. We send our trucks out to replace full bins with empty bins, and, in this instance, the store locations receive the five- to 10-cents per pound paid for used padding. Plus, the stores save the time, transport costs and tipping fees they would typically incur in disposing the used padding at a landfill.”

Once the used carpet padding is received by Cushion Recyclers, it is bundled or baled and then transported to either a waste broker or directly to the closest carpet padding manufacturer. At the manufacturer, it undergoes a series of steps in a recycling process to create totally new rebond carpet padding. The recycled, or rebond carpet padding, is formed by combining chopped and shredded pieces of used carpet padding with post-industrial polyurethane foam scrap, in different sizes and usually different colors, into one solid piece. The process starts with preparing and sterilizing used padding by grinding, steaming and chemical washing. The sterilized padding is then mixed with post-industrial polyurethane foam scrap (with virgin foam in some instances), and molded into padding rolls of various fractional-inch thicknesses.

Sources of post-industrial foam scrap include manufacturers of sofas, chairs, mattresses, automotive seat padding and door panels, textiles, and clothing. Foam scrap and used rebond carpet padding can be put through this recycling process eight to 10 times before it loses its spring and padding characteristics. According to the CCC, the newly formed carpet padding has the same performance characteristics and benefits as virgin carpet padding, including sound control, temperature insulation, extended carpet life, and improved air flow that helps vacuum cleaners to clean more efficiently. According to Trick, operational efficiency is critically important for broadloom cushion recyclers to maintain profit levels. “Bundling and baling in preparing the used padding to ship may be the most important step to maximize your operating efficiency and ROI,” Trick said.

“We’re working with a lightweight, spongy, springy product. First of all, it’s unwieldy and difficult to handle. Secondly, we’re trying to fit as much material and as much weight as we possibly can in each semitrailer in order to maximize our shipping cost. To achieve that, we need to compress the padding as much as possible and then keep it that way, in dense, neat bales. That’s why our baler equipment is so important to our productivity. “When it comes to baling, I’ve learned from trial and error,” explained Trick. “Our current operation started in 1999, but we were actually in the business in the early ’90s and had to get out for a few years because it just wasn’t profitable. Our initial problems were that our operation was too labor-intensive and we couldn’t generate the necessary volume. I kept in touch over the next few years with our dealer, Midwest Scrap Systems in Cincinnati, and I learned about a fully automatic baler from American Baler Co. that had the potential to dramatically reduce our labor costs and increase our volume.

“Today,” he continued, “we have a baler from American Baler in each of our locations: Louisville, Lexington and Kennesaw. We’re now able to bale in one hour what used to take—and what still takes other recyclers—eight hours to bale. We produce about 100 bales a day each weighing between 700 and 800 pounds. Today, our baling efficiency creates sufficient volume to enable us to ship directly from each of our locations to the padding manufacturer without the need of using a waste broker. In fact, we serve as a broker for other padding recycling businesses. Important Ally “Having the counsel of someone with baling expertise has made a real difference in our profitability,” Trick related, “and American Baler Co. and its local dealer proved to be an important ally in that area. Baling carpet padding has its own set of requirements differing from corrugated or metal scrap, which these balers also handle.

American Baler specially designed the software and gearing for our balers and then stayed on-site during start-up until everything was operational. Each start-up was quick and efficient—and ever since, the balers have been extremely reliable.” The technology of recycling used carpet padding with post-industrial polyurethane scrap foam has created new business opportunities for companies like Cushion Recyclers. Trick believes that with increased public awareness of the ability to recycle carpet padding, and as used padding collection and recycling companies learn to improve their baling and production efficiency, it seems likely that strong increases can be made beyond the current national level of 50% of used padding being recycled. “We’re watching the trend of our company’s increasing volume and we’re almost ready to invest in another new baler,” said Trick. Additional work still needs to be done in the more complicated task of recycling the carpeting itself, he noted. But, as recycling efforts for carpeting and other consumable products improve and move toward the efficiencies of carpet padding recycling, the nation will be able to further conserve valuable material, natural resources and landfill reserves.