A National Agreement on Carpet Recycling

Industry and Government Unite to Increase Recycling and Reduce Discarded Carpet

On January 8, 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia, the Memorandum of Understanding for Carpet Stewardship (MOU) was signed. This important agreement establishes an ambitious ten-year schedule to increase the amount of reuse and recycling of post-consumer carpet and reduce the amount of waste carpet going to landfills. These initial goals are for the years 2002–2012.

The MOU is the result of a two-year negotiation process between members of the carpet industry, representatives of government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, and non-governmental organizations.

The agreement is a voluntary initiative that encourages manufacturers to assume product stewardship — the responsibility for the lifecycle of carpet from point-of-sale to disposal. The carpet industry has established a third-party organization known as the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) to achieve the national goals for reuse and recycling of discarded carpet.

As the first of its kind in the United States, this agreement will be considered a model for future product stewardship initiatives.

			2012 Goals for Carpet Recovery
				2002	2012
			Total Discards	4,678	6,772
			>Reuse	0	203-339
			>Recycling	180	1,354-1,693
			>WTE	–	68
			>Cement Kilns	–	200
			>Landfill	4,498	4,812
			Recycling Rate	3.8%	20-25%
			(Millions of pounds | Data: Carpet & Rug Institute)

The challenge of waste carpet. The amount of carpet that is reaching the end of its useful life and entering the waste stream is ever-increasing: Estimated total discards for 2002 are 4.7 billion pounds. Land disposal, or landfilling, is by far the most common disposal method (96%). National concerns about disposal capacity, combined with carpet's bulk (which makes it difficult and expensive to handle), have contributed to the search for alternative means for carpet disposal.

While most components that make up carpet are recyclable or reusable, only about 4% of waste carpet currently gets handled in these ways. Increasing recycling and reuse would reduce waste and recover valuable resources.

The negotiated goals set forth in the MOU include escalating goals for reuse and recycling — the first step in the eventual elimination of land disposal and incineration of post-consumer carpet.

The case for "product stewardship." Product stewardship means that all parties involved in designing, manufacturing, selling and using a product take responsibility for environmental impacts at every stage of that product's life. The agreement promotes product stewardship for carpet by asking manufacturers to meet goals for reuse and recycling of waste carpet. This approach is expected to reduce the environmental impacts of carpet throughout its life cycle — from design to end-of-life management.