CalRecycle approves CARE's Carpet Stewardship five-year plan

On February 20th, California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) Director Scott Smithline approved the most recent Five-Year Plan submitted by Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE). 

The Plan's approval means that CARE will continue as the carpet stewardship organization for California and will keep working aggressively to meet the goals of legislation (AB 2398 and AB 1158) to reduce the amount of carpet going to landfill and to create a market for recycled carpet material.

"This is great news," said CARE Executive Director Robert Peoples. 

"Plan approval means we can continue to support the carpet recycling industry in California in order to keep more carpet out of California landfills, create jobs and promote more products made with recycled carpet. We look forward to continuing subsidies to carpet recyclers, providing convenient carpet collection sites across the state, and educating retailers, installers, local government, building owners and consumers on the process and benefits of recycling. We are working hard to support recyclers and to ensure that we meet or exceed the 24% carpet recycling rate goal set by the Plan by January 1, 2020."

"We appreciate the California Carpet Stewardship Advisory Committee and CalRecycle's feedback and continued cooperation to create a Plan that meets the needs of the state and the industry," noted Peoples. "CARE is working with stakeholders on exciting developments that are going to change the face of carpet recycling and achieve the ambitious goals set by our new Plan."

Like many textiles, carpet is made of petroleum-based material. Currently, more than 340 million pounds of used carpet are discarded in California landfills each year. Recovered carpet can be used to manufacture new carpet fiber, building and construction materials and products for the consumer and automotive industries, among other uses. (See more details on products here.) The California Carpet Stewardship Program is funded by an assessment -- 35 cents per square yard -- on all carpet sold in California. 

Since 2011 the California Carpet Stewardship Program has been engaged with increasing carpet diversion and recycling and supporting new markets for recycled post-consumer carpet products in accordance with state law AB 2398. CARE has been the state's designated Carpet Stewardship Organization since the law went into effect.