Tips for Recycling Carpet

With the complexity of the carpet recycling process in mind, finding a reclamation center that will accept your used carpet can be challenging at times. While a set recycling infrastructure is still being developed for carpet, there are a number of ways you can find organizations to recycle your carpet. Use Earth911’s recycling locator to find a reclamation center or retailer near you that accepts carpet for recycling.

• To recycle residential carpet, your dealer is a good place to start to find local solutions for recycling. If you are in the commercial sector, contact your representative at the carpet mill to find out how they can assist you.
• In the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) network, 56 reclamation centers nationwide have joined to help recycle used carpet.
• According to Environmental Recovery and Consolidation Services, recycled carpet can become a number of substances from auto parts and plastic lumber to parking stops and carpet backing.
• Recycling carpet is not free. While there is a big payoff in the resources you will save through recycling, the work involved in physically recycling the product comes at a cost. The carpet must be collected and transported to the recycling center. Then it is identified, separated and broken down. These substances must be converted into a form which other manufacturers will purchase and then shipped to the manufacturer to become a new product.
• When buying new carpet, look for product made from recycled materials. By buying recycled carpet, you help create a demand to continue recycling efforts.
• Even though it is not as easy to recycle carpet as other materials (such as paper or glass), the benefits of doing so far outweigh the cost and time associated with it. By saving millions of pounds of wasted resources from landfills and preventing the use of virgin materials for new products, each person’s collective participation in this process promulgates the importance of continuing the development of this recycling sector.