California’s Carpet Recycling Program Boosts Rate to 27.9 Percent

The gears have turned on California's Carpet Stewardship Program for more than a decade - 10.5 years to be exact - to increase state recycling rates.

Carpet America Recovery Effort's (CARE's) 2021 Annual Report illuminates the progress achieved under the CalRecycle-approved Carpet Stewardship Plan, which detailed the performance goals under Carpet Stewardship Law AB 2398, AB 1158, and AB 729 that should be met between 2018 and 2022.

"To bolster carpet collection and recycling in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on carpet markets, carpet recycling, the economy, and daily lives in California and beyond, the program adopted a COVID-19 Action Plan on March 30, 2020," CARE stated in the document's executive summary. 

With the implementation of the COVID-19 Action Plan and "strategic market development efforts", CARE provided stability to the carpet recycling supply chain via cash infusions, enhanced subsidies and other measures. This allowed the program to achieve an all-time annual high recycling rate of 27.9 percent in 2021, up from 20.9 percent in 2020 and nearly double the 14 percent rate in 2017. The 2021 recycling rate surpassed the Carpet Stewardship Plan's 26 percent target.

“2021 was another year of major progress in the face of multiple challenges," CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples stated. "I credit the hard work of the recyclers, retailers, installers and drop-off site staff; over the years we have built a robust system for collecting and recycling carpet that is unequaled anywhere. This is the first time the program has met the ambitious goals set forth in the Five-Year Plan and we are on track to continue this amazing progress.”

The percent of gross collection converted to recyclable yield also has increased significantly with plan implementation, growing to 76.4 percent in 2021, up from 48.2 percent in 2017. This exceeded the plan's target rate of 60 percent.

In order to catalyze recycling rates, California's Carpet Stewardship Program provided structured grants and subsidies to incentivize recycling as well as state-approved apprenticeship programs for training apprentice and journey-level carpet installers in proper carpet recycling practices.

Additional commitments involved recommendations from the California Carpet Advisory Committee on stewardship plans, plan amendments and annual reports; 
ensuring that assessment fee funds not be expended on penalties or litigation against the state; ending subsidies for  Carpet As Alternative Fuel (CAAF) and Kiln; and supporting state agency efforts to revise state procurement rule to support recycling of post-consumer carpet removed from state buildings and to purchase carpet meeting minimum standards for PCC content.

The program hosted 94 public drop-off sites in 2021, which were situated at transfer stations, construction and demolition (C&D) recovery facilities, landfills, and material recovery facilities (MRFs). Some of the cites offered additional services such as collection from flooring retailers.

Semi-public drop-off sites were introduced in 2021, which are open to flooring professionals and/or will-call customers only. The program also offered private collection via collector/sorters for generators of post-consumer carpet.

The annual report stated that in 2021, 218 large-volume carpet/pad generators used collector/sorter private onsite pick-up services.

"In addition, independent collectors, including some public Drop-off Sites, provided onsite private pick-up service to 80 additional locations," according to the report. "In total, there were 298 accounts that received private onsite pick-up service as of the end of 2021."

The organization additionally stated that, "27 vendors currently incorporate carpet in at least 103 products, including 1tenvendors in California. These products have industrial and retail applications, such as automotive plastic components, rubber transition mats, building materials and absorbency products.