By Matthew Spieler
CLEARWATER, FLA.—Despite a difficult year for business and locating new supply chains, the Carpet America Recovery Effort ( CARE) was able to report a double-digit increase in reclaimed carpet for the fifth consecutive year.
The 17% jump in diverting product from America’s landfills allowed the initiative to reach a major milestone since a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the carpet industry, government and non-government entities that established CARE in 2002: surpassing one billion pounds of carpet from reaching the dumps.

And, of the 296 million pounds diverted in 2007, 275.1 million pounds were recycled, a 19% increase over the previous year. The number of collection sites in the U.S. also rose, from 37 to 56, a 51% increase (Editor’s note: During the first third of 2008, the number has grown to more than 60 collection sites).

During its annual conference, Frank Hurd, CARE’s chairman, told the record number of attendees—including nearly a dozen representatives from federal and state governments as well as nationally respected organizations such as the National Standards Foundation— the positive results happened despite a number of events that had negative affects on the non-profit’s mission to find market-based solutions to the diversion of post-consumer carpet from landfills. These included the slowdown in new housing, existing homes and car sales, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and the residual affects on outlets for nylon 6,6 resulting from the Columbia Recycling fire at the start of ’07.

The results also exceeded the group’s initial forecast, he told FCNews during an exclusive interview. “2007 was the most difficult year we’ve had since CARE was started. And we still saw double-digit growth. It says a great deal about the commitment of the people and companies involved in this effort.”

Growing awareness

The fact is, Hurd added, “the awareness of CARE is growing at all levels.” For instance, the number of sponsors has grown from a dozen when CARE started to 56 at press time. “With specifiers and commercial end users recognition is approaching 45%.”

While this figure continues to rise, the residential side “has been the toughest nut to crack. The residential consumer is not asking for her used carpet to be recycled, whereas on the commercial side there is a much higher appreciation for it.”

As such, one of the organization’s focuses going forward will be how to engage specialty dealers to not only help get the word out to their customers that there are other options besides simply throwing out their carpets. He said CARE is trying to work with such resources as the World Floor Covering Association ( WFCA) and some of the industry’s largest buying groups “to see where we can make inroads. We keep plugging away and not assuming something won’t work.”

Another area that shows both the growth in awareness of carpet reclamation and recognition that it is a viable industry is in the number of collection sites. “When we started,” Hurd said, “there were a handful of dislinked collectors; now there is a growing network that currently comprises more than 60 with CARE being able to facilitate communication between them.”

Still maturing

One thing to keep in mind, he pointed out, is the concept of recycling carpet is still immature when compared to other products, such as paper, aluminum and even electronics.

In addition, end markets that do exist have not matured sufficiently, Hurd explained, to use the tools commonly found in other recycled material recovery chains: guaranteed floor/ceiling prices, long-term supply contracts or commitment to closed-loop recycling based on market demand for such products. “As the market matures and we are successful in diversifying our customer base, we should be able to attract more capital investment that will enable the carpet industry to grow throughout the value chain (from collection to end product). This will enable smaller entrepreneurs to be more successful and sustainable.”

To that end, Hurd did note ways in which CARE and the business of reclaiming and recycling carpet have matured since 2002. “We are exploring new outlets for products made with post-consumer carpet, and we are reaching out to partners we never considered before or didn’t fully appreciate when CARE started.”

For example, he said, “We are actively reaching out to the plastics industry to find more and better ways to incorporate post- onsumer carpet into products that compounders can use, and we are expanding our efforts to find government outlets for products made from post-consumer carpet.”

As proof of its sincerity to reach out to new industries, CARE elected to its board Bob Pilotti of ECM Plastics, a custom color matching and specialty additive formulation company to the sector, as well as Bob Peoples, the organization’s first executive director who recently left the position to fulfill a similar role with the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute.

During a session on new innovations, Pilotti showed a car part made from a molded piece of high-performance plastic whose origin came from used carpet. “There’s a good chance the black plastic under the hood is nylon, namely nylon 6,6.”

Along with the auto industry, he pointed to electronics, film, stock shaped (rods and tubes), industrial, wire/cable and other areas as “major nylon markets.”

Attendees applauded CARE’s move to branch out. Fred Williamson, vice president of operations for the Starnet Commercial Flooring cooperative, noted his members are asked about other products on a regular basis, “so it’s exciting to see that CARE is recognizing the need to explore more avenues.”

Starnet members, like many in the contract field, are very active in the collection process. In fact, the group has teamed with CARE to recognize those who reclaim the most pounds of carpet every year.

Ken Daniels, vice president of the ReSource Commercial Network, echoed Williamson’s enthusiasm and added, “We need to make sure we don’t miss the opportunities that come to us. Many times the carpet is ripped up by a demolition contractor who mixes it in with the rest of the scrap and a huge opportunity is missed in being able to collect the product.”

His group of contractors have a program, ECOllect, that is more than just recycling. “It’s about information and education.” Using that as a platform, his message to members, along with general contractors, end users and others in the chain, will be, “Let’s communicate on this. We can effect where we have the influence.”

Balancing act

Williamson noted, “The whole process of diversion is a very complex issue. On the one hand, you don’t want a whole bunch of people collecting the stuff and then have no place to send it. At the same time, you don’t want to have a bunch of mills and other outlets promise the need for a continuous feedstock yet can’t get it.”

Last year was proof of the difficult balancing act Williamson expressed. With such events as the economic slump and the Columbia fire, many collectors were suddenly stranded with bales and bales of nylon 6,6 carpet. As a result, an independent survey by Weston Solutions found an excess inventory in 2007 of at least 19 million pounds.

Since it was the first year a survey was done regarding inventory, Matthew Goldman, the company’s sustainability director, would not speculate as to whether it was an abnormal amount. Though many in the audience seemed to agree they had or knew of others who had more of a backup than previous years.

Also, that figure, Goldman noted, was not factored in the total diversion numbers since it was unclear what will eventually happen to it—“it could all stay diverted or end up in the landfill.”

Daniels wants to work with collectors, mills and others to find places for carpet if it can’t be recycled back to carpet, noting it was good for the manufacturers to hear about the inventories.

Moving forward

While 2007 was an overall good year for CARE, as have been its first six years, the reality is the industry will not meet the goals set by the MOU for 2012. As such, an independent assessment, as required by the MOU, was conducted by Zero Waste Alliance (ZWA) to “evaluate the progress and identify existing barriers…”

When it came to the reassessment, the main thing, said Hurd, is that since the beginning, “CARE has been honest, transparent and forthright in what we’ve been doing and the progress we’ve been making. So now we will go through a correction.”

He added that instead of setting actual goals in terms of ‘x’ amount of carpet will be diverted from landfills by a certain year, it is better to show continuing improvement each year.

Many said while the original goals were admirable, numerous factors were not considered in terms of being able to reach them— or example, the actual ramp up of the program and the extended housing slump followed by the economic downturn.

As CARE enters the next phase of its mission, it is also in the process of finding a new executive director following the departure of Peoples. Of all the happenings in 2007 Hurd said, “The only real regret we have is that we said goodbye to Bob Peoples, our first executive director. While he remains on the CARE board, he is no longer involved in the day-to-day activities and this leaves a huge hole in the CARE organization.”

A search committee has been established, and the group expects to fill the position sometime this year. “We hope to have it done by the end of summer,” Hurd noted. “We have a wide net spread out for candidates but because we are in a position to move to the next level of this initiative, we are being careful to make sure we select the right person for the job.”

The key moving forward, he concluded, is that the CARE network continues to grow in both diverting carpet from landfills and finding resources for its reuse. “There are many exciting things happening despite the slowdown. The recycling being done by the mills, for instance— Shaw, Mohawk, Interface and others—all have different approaches they feel will be successful, and we need to continue to support their efforts. Plus, we’re now talking with industries we never considered, or never considered us in 2002. These are all positive steps and we can use this momentum to build upon going forward.”