Strand by Strand

One may mention the word carpet, and images of beautiful gold and green shag carpet may form. Replacing that carpet can be a costly and involved project when in a home, and even more so when in the business place that can consume thousands of yards of carpet.

Disposal costs and efforts to gain repeat business, as well as environmental issues, have prompted several companies to capitalize on the business of carpet recycling. Through a variety of techniques and programs, several manufacturers have implemented carpet take-back programs. Offering recycled-content carpet as a purchase option and using carpet “trade-in” programs are other methods being used to “close the recycling loop” for carpeting.

Tackling the Problem

Carpet is a bulky, cumbersome product that can be hard to dispose of and that takes up a lot of landfill space, making it a natural target for recycling advocates. Although some manufacturers have initiated recycling programs, Chris Johnson says, “the problem is that the industry as a whole has not taken action. Each manufacturer is worried about their clients and no one has really taken the issue on industry-wide to deal with it.”

Johnson, president of Underfoot Recycling, Cape Coral, Fla., spends most of his time as a carpet installer with his business, but working with the material so closely has led him to also seek outlets for waste carpet and recycling or reuse options.

Demand from the corporate world for recycling programs has prompted many manufacturers to take action. “Corporate America is driving the issue because they are [requesting it from] the manufacturers,” he says. “We work with all of the manufacturers, and all of them are bidding projects where the corporations are holding the manufacturer responsible for the material they are producing and recycling.”

Johnson says manufacturers may be initiating their own recycling programs for carpet to satisfy corporate customers, but there aren’t really any programs to collect residential carpet. While residential carpet makes the largest volume of available carpet for collection and recycling, the commercial installations are often the easiest ways to collect large amounts of carpet at one time. Instead of obtaining 2,000 square feet from a residential house, thousands of square yards can be collected from one corporate location or client.

But the catch-22 in this is that while commercial carpet may be easier to collect, it is often made of Nylon 66, a material much more difficult to recycle than the Nylon 6 used in residential applications, says Lyn McFarland, director of continuous improvement for Interface America, Greenville, Ga.

Just as there are concerns about contamination for other recyclables, carpet is no different. “There are a lot of issues involved, more than just grinding it up,” McFarland says. “Some materials lend themselves to that more than others. Nylon 6 is pretty readily recyclable.”

Making recycling affordable is also an issue, he says. While a particular process may be conceivable as far as technology and know-how, actually finding the funding or having the idea make business sense is another issue. “Sustainability and balancing all of those things becomes a challenge,” McFarland says.

In an effort to collect more residential carpet, the Honeywell division of General Electric, Fairfield, Conn., and DSM Chemicals North America Inc., Augusta, Ga., created a pilot facility to recycle carpet in 1997. The facility, located in Augusta, is part of a joint venture called Evergreen Nylon Recycling LLC. At full capacity, the facility can process one million tons of carpet, says David Blackwood, collections marketing manager for Evergreen Nylon Recycling, Colonial Heights, Va. At full capacity, 500,000 tons of re-usable caprolactam is produced from the incoming scrap carpet.

The facility accepts Nylon 6 carpet, mostly from residential sources, although some commercial entities do have Nylon 6 carpet. Prompt factory carpet scrap is also accepted. The group has created a nationwide network located in metropolitan areas to collect carpet from retailers, demolition companies and municipalities. “They sort and process the material and then we buy it baled from them,” Blackwood says.

The goal, he says of the collection locations, is to “generate relationships with carpet retail stores, installers, C&D contractors and municipalities.” The recyclers operate a number of ways, but they typically either have carpet dropped off at their location, sort out the recyclable commodities at the collection point, or transport the collected materials and segregate them at a processing location.

Capturing the residential stream of carpet is a goal of Evergreen’s, Blackwood says. “If you racked up where most of the carpet being recycled today is, a significant portion is residential carpet,” he notes. “Before we started this, there was no collection activity for this material. The industry generally views it as hard to get residential material, [so] the joint venture has put a lot of energy into this.”

Making carpet recycling an economical business was part of the challenge, Blackwood says. “We had to go out and make carpet recycling a viable business for people. Before the plant was constructed, demand for this amount of material really didn’t exist.”

Out with the Old, In with the Re-newed

Looking at old, worn carpet, one would think it has outlived its lifespan and the only place it can go is the landfill. But a closer look reveals that same dirty, worn carpet can be renewed and have an entirely new life and use.

Milliken & Co., LaGrange, Ga., offers a carpet exchange format through its EarthSquare program. Renewed carpet is “super cleaned,” rejuvenated and re-colored, says Bill Blackstock, program leader for the EarthSquare program. And once a carpet is “EarthSquared,” the process can be repeated several times.

The project began when Milliken & Co. chief operating officer Tom Malone observed the high amount of waste carpet going to landfills. After the company researched several options, it was found that carpet could be cleaned and dyed and used again. “You take this nylon that is dirty and matted down and super clean it and retexturize it and use Millitron [injected] dye to recolor it,” Blackstone says.

Milliken & Co. clients can exchange Milliken carpet to be “EarthSquared” and reinstall that carpet in the same facility or use it in another.

“One of our larger clients with multiple buildings bought new carpet for one building and then sent the old carpet to us to be renewed and then re-installed in another building,” Blackstone says. “It is particularly useful to larger clients.”

The company says EarthSquare can cost 30% to 40% less than purchasing brand new carpet. EarthSquare carpet has a 10-year warranty and each time carpet is “EarthSquared,” a new 10- year warranty begins again.

The Millitron dye application Blackstone mentions is applied to carpet and can be colored in a variety of patterns. Computer controlled micro jets inject dye into the face of the carpet, with up to 400 color dots per square inch. Carpet that previously had a red hue can be renewed to have a floral pattern or stripes or plaids.

Mining for Carpet

The EarthSquare program is just one way manufacturers are recycling or reusing carpet. Collins & Aikman Floorcoverings, Dalton, Ga., has capitalized on the recycling aspect of the business by reclaiming carpet and processing it into carpet again.

Andy Calhoun, an account manager for Collins & Aikman in Huntersville, N.C., says the company takes carpet manufactured by Collins & Aikman or any manufacturer, as long as it is a vinyl-backed product with a closed vinyl cushion attached. That material is then ground up and mixed with processed post-consumer plastics to make a new backing. This process can be done up to 15 times, he says, and the carpet is warranted for 20 years.

“The logistics are pretty tough right now,” Calhoun says. “If we go to a job like the City of Charlotte and they have 20,000 yards of a competitor’s vinyl-backed carpet, we’ll tell them we’ll take it back. But they must palletize it so we can take it to the mill. Typically that is cheaper than taking it to the landfill.”

Calhoun says finding enough feedstock carpet is not an issue because of buy-back programs set up with the government.

In addition to recycling carpet back into carpet, rubber parking stops can be made from the material. “Concrete parking stops usually only last five years,” Calhoun says. “If ours breaks we take it back and give them a new one. The great thing about the vinyl back is there is no such thing as a flat parking lot and when it heats up the vinyl stops mold to the surface.”

Landscaping timbers can also be made from carpet, he says. “It’s a beautiful thing that never rots,” he says of the plastic timbers, which he also notes are lighter and less prone to rotting than their wood counterparts.

Calhoun says a mandate from the North Carolina governor’s office stating no carpet from a government project can be landfilled has also helped with the acceptance of recycled carpet and recycling of the material. Also, making a product that is equal to or better than a product made with virgin material is the key to creating a sustainable product, he says.

States Stepping In

While there are no national guidelines as to the disposal of carpet, several states have taken the initiative to create an organization to promote product stewardship and to address carpet in the waste stream.

The Midwestern Working Group on Carpet Recycling is a joint effort among several states to address the amount of carpet entering the waste stream. The venture is between the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance (OEA), St. Paul; the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison; the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Des Moines; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Region 5 office in Chicago.

The group is focused on establishing recovery and recycling goals for residential and commercial carpet in the upper Midwest and determining how to fund these goals with minimum government assistance. The group also aims to establish a “blueprint” for collaboration on carpet recovery and recycling that can be used in other regions of the country.

So far, says Paul Reusch, environmental engineer with the U.S. EPA’s Region 5, the group “has really just discussed some management ideas and hypothetically talked about setting up a third party that would help the different carpet and independent recyclers to increase the recovery of carpet.

“We realize this is something that must be pursued in coordination with the industry,” he says. “A lot of manufacturers recover their own product and have a infrastructure in place or have it contracted out.”

The challenge is trying to figure out how to get the material not already collected by manufacturers to contracted recyclers. Reuse is an option that is being considered, and several large manufacturers have reuse programs in place.

“We are working with reuse development to organize a consortium of reuse warehouses throughout the U.S. trying to get people who are replacing carpet to see about bypassing the recycling and going straight to one of these reuse warehouses where community groups can access the carpet,” says Reusch.

To increase the incentive to recycle or reuse carpet, tax write-offs are another way Reusch says businesses can be encouraged to participate. “A lot of manufacturers are seeing this as an opportunity to save money and energy in recycling and also as a way to enhance their coordination with the community to derive some economic benefit.”

Reuse is a viable option he says, especially when carpet has not been in a high traffic area and still has use left. “We have witnessed some large scale diversions by some carpet manu-facturers,” says Reusch. “Often they need to clear out something called attic stock and the manufacturers urge distributors to unload the stuff,” he says. Some large carpet companies have donated this stock to housing for low-income residents.

Hickle says he has seen programs dealing with carpet recycling “really take off in the last six months. I think the Honeywell facility has been really instrumental.” Minnesota does not have any disposal restrictions or end of life management requirements at this time for waste carpet. Although a bill was introduced during the 1999 legislative session that would have required carpet retailers to accept waste carpet, the proposal did not advance.

Like Minnesota, Iowa does not have any initiatives about the collection of waste carpet and there are no disposal restrictions as well. Wisconsin, the third state involved in the group, does not have any guidelines or restrictions either.

An issue Reusch says is important to carpet recycling is that of procurement. “One of the big things government offices have to bring to the table is purchasing power. The procurement guidelines are picked up and used by local, county, state and even federal government offices. A start would be buying carpet with recycled content. That is where the government can make a positive impact and create a demand for the recycled content carpet,” he says. “The government is a very influential market driver.”

Penning a Level Field

Currently there is no legislation governing the disposal of waste carpet, although some areas may have landfill bans on the material. McFarland says that while manufacturers are taking some action, the government may need to step in and take some action.

“In order to level the playing field you need to have legislation,” he says. “Ultimately there are going to be restrictions on what can be thrown into landfills. The carpet industry, as a whole, tends to be a leader for a variety of reasons: because we know we are a target because we manufacture a big bulky product. We have a bull’s-eye on our forehead.”

The author is the associate editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at mgoodrich@recyclingtoday.com.