Recycled Carpet

There are now dozens of carpet recycling businesses in the country. These businesses are reporting that their biggest obstacle isn’t obtaining used carpet but finding companies that are willing to pay money for it, break it down, and turn it into new products. Finding buyers is actually the competitive part of the recycled carpet industry.
Carpeting covers mostly all the floors in homes, places of work, and business spaces in the United States, according to the Carpet and Rug Institute. Recycled carpet is an excellent option when you consider that most of this carpeting would some day end up in our landfills. Recycling helps reduce this and puts the used carpet to good use. The production of recycled carpet also results in lower emissions than manufacturing conventional carpet.

Old carpet can also be useful around the home. If the insulation in your attic is old, just cut carpet into strips to fit between beams. You can also use it to insulate the doghouse in winter. Use leftover strips to wrap outdoor pipes and water faucets, using duct tape to secure the strips. To keep the heating element in your water heater from working too hard, use carpet to insulate it.

If you prefer, you can direct your recycled carpet efforts at CARE, the Carpet America Recovery Effort. The carpet industry, several states, the federal EPA and a little cluster of non-governmental organizations signed the Memorandum of Understanding that created CARE in 2002. Since recycling actually costs money you may need to ask your dealer or mill representative what the recycled carpet options are for your area. Carpet’s life expectancy is only about eight years, and about nearly two million tons of carpeting winds up in US landfills annually. These carpets can be restored and donated to charitable organizations, or they can find new life in the form of park benches, vehicle accessories and curb blocks.