By Matthew Spieler
On Jan. 8, 2002, after a two-year negotiation process between the public and private sectors, members of the carpet industry, representatives of government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, and nongovernmental organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Carpet Stewardship (MOU), thus forming the Carpet America Recovery Effort ( CARE).

Nearly eight years later, the effort continues to be strong. In 2007, just five years since CARE was formed, more than one billion pounds of used carpet was diverted from America’s landfills and the number keeps growing every day.

In fact, efforts have been so good, in 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency teamed with CARE to present an annual award. Known as the EPA/CARE Innovation in Recycling Award, the honor is presented by the agency each year to the company that shows an effective way to keep carpet from ending up in the landfill.

At its very base level, CARE is a joint industry-government effort to increase the amount of recycling and reuse of postconsumer carpet and reduce the amount of waste carpet going to landfills.

The MOU is important on many levels, though there are two main areas in which to focus. The first, is that it establishes an ambitious goal to increase the amount of recycling and reuse of post-consumer carpet and reduce the amount of waste carpet going to landfills, initially by 2012 but beyond as well.

The second key point to the agreement is that it is a voluntary partnership between industry, government and non-governmental entities to work toward finding a solution to a growing problem prior to any local, state or federal regulations getting passed.

CARE’s mission is to facilitate the carpet industry and lead initiatives to find market driven solutions to the diversion of post- consumer carpet from landfills. The non-profit organization’s vision calls for it to bring value to the emerging post-consumer carpet recycling industry through reuse, recycling into carpet and non-carpet products, and other diversion technologies.

Why the need for an organization like CARE? The answer is rather simple and deals with the challenge of waste carpet. No one will argue the amount of carpet that is reaching the end of its useful life and entering the waste stream is ever-increasing. At the time CARE was formed, it was estimated total discards for 2002 were 4.7 billion pounds. While most components that make up carpet are recyclable or reusable, only about 4% of waste carpet currently gets handled in these ways. Increasing recycling and reuse would reduce waste and recover valuable resources.

Land disposal, or land filling, continues to be by far the most common disposal method (96%). Now throw in national— even international concerns about landfill capacity— not only are many of the landfills around the country coming to the end of their useful life, no new facilities are being builtand the need to find ways to keep products from ending up in the dump is warranted more than ever. And though carpet technically only accounts for about 2% of the actual waste, it actually takes upwards of 14% of the actual space because of its bulk (which also makes it difficult and expensive to handle). Put these together and they have contributed to the search for alternative means for carpet disposal.

New industry rises

When CARE started there was barely any way for businesses to reclaim used carpet. Not only was the effort to recycle used carpet back to new broadloom miniscule, there was no outreach to other industries that might be able to reuse some or all of the product’s ingredients. There were less than a handful of reclamation facilities scattered throughout the country.

Today, there are approximately 60 independently owned and operated reclamation facilities—a complete list of CARE reclamation partners can be found at carpetrecovery.org—and the number of mills invested in finding ways to economically recycle carpet back into itself, thus effectively creating a “closed-loop” cycle, or how to reuse the raw materials for another use, such as reinforcing concrete or as the heavy duty black-molded plastic used in machinery, most notably cars, has grown to where nearly every one is involved in some type of research program. In addition, many manufacturers have their own reclamation programs. Some work with existing centers along with utilizing their own trucking fleets to facilitate a project.

Also, thanks to the work of CARE, more than just contacts have been made in other industries. The hope is that by working closely together, the flooring industry can keep carpet from entering the landfill and these other industries will be able to reuse raw carpet materials to solve one or more of their key issues.

As noted above, the CARE initiative is a voluntary project, which is why industry officials encourage everyone to get involved in the effort. Retailers, contractors and installers can help the carpet reclamation movement by partnering with CARE to promote products that contain post-consumer materials.

Executives noted the greatest challenge currently facing the developing carpet reclamation industry is increasing sales of postconsumer recycled content carpet. More and more post-consumer content flooring products are on the market so when talking to a customer—be it a home owner, architect, designer, facility manager and so on, encouraging the diversion of old carpet and promoting the industry’s ability to reclaim and reuse it can go a long way in propelling the movement to the next level.

If you don’t think so, remember, it only took five years to go from a non-existent industry to one that has diverted more than one billion pounds of used carpet from landfills and the average annual rate is about to surpass 300 million pounds.

As Fred Williamson, a CARE board member and vice president of operations for Starnet Worldwide, stated, “Frontline salespeople have a unique opportunity to create excitement about the growing carpet recycling movement by informing the public about carpet reclamation and available environmentally friendly products.”

He pointed out that in order for CARE and the carpet recycling industry to be successful, “all industry members, from manufacturers to installers, must be committed to the diversion of post-consumer carpet at the local level. Some flooring firms have demonstrated their overall commitment to this environmental movement by implementing programs that guarantee all their postconsumer carpet will either be recycled or reused, while other firms have partnered with CARE via its new membership program. Carpet is the common fiber that binds this divergent community of stakeholders. With determination and commitment, the industry, consumers and the environment will benefit from this innovative, new industry.”

Finally, because CARE is solely a voluntary effort, its success is being closely watched, not just at various government levels but by private industry as well.

At its heart, CARE is built on a working, cooperative relationship between carpet and fiber manufacturers, the Carpet & Rug Institute, state and federal government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
content, saving hundreds of tons of waste from going to landfills.

Simply put, many see CARE as a model for future product stewardship initiatives. They recognize the importance of developing systems and processes through a cooperative effort between the private and public sectors instead of immediately imposing legislation on something.