The CARE Conference '09 in Pictures

As you know from Georgina Sikorski on CARE-ing for the Environment and CARE 2009 Annual Conference & Carpet Recycling, I attended the CARE 2009 Annual Conference. I also took pictures that I share with you.

These relate to the Awards programs and the winners in this year’s CARE awards.

Here on the left is the CARE Person of the Year Award - a magnificent piece to honor outstanding contributions.

CARE's Person of the Year for 2009 is Brendan McSheehy.

You see him below holding the Award.

From the press release, I extracted the following. It gives you a sense of Brendan's accomplishments:

"For his exemplary leadership on the CARE Board, serving as chairman of various CARE committees, Brendan McSheehy, Jr., was named CARE Person of the Year. As director of research and development for Universal Fiber Systems, Mr. McSheehy has been actively involved in carpet fiber research and recycling since 1993. A patent-holder for a method of cleaning and separating post-consumer carpet face yarn, Mr. McSheehy was instrumental in the development of his company's ReFresh Fiber, which contains post-consumer content from recycled nylon Type 6,6 carpet."

Supporting CARE...

As a Green Partner: Howard Elder [on the left with CRI's Frank Hurd] accepts J&J Industry's globe for their continued support of CARE as a Green Partner.















As a Sustainable Leadership Partner: Eric Nelson [on the right with Frank Hurd] accepts InterfaceFlor's globe for their support as a Sustainable Leadership Partner.



















The EPA/CARE Innovations in Carpet Recycling Award

From the press release: "Established just two years ago, the EPA/CARE award recognizes innovation in a product containing post-consumer carpet content, or a process that diverts substantial amounts of post-consumer carpet from landfills. This year the award is shared by Shaw Industries' Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility and Los Angeles Fiber Company and its president Ronald Greitzer."

In this photo, Shaw accepts the EPA/CARE Innovations in Carpet Recycling Award – Steven Jones (Left) Bea Brahmbhatt, Joe Bill Faith, Rick Ramirez, Russ DeLozier, John Conyers, Frank Hurd (CRI) and John Cross (EPA)

Some information about Shaw's Evergreen plant from the press release: "From the time Shaw began operating the Evergreen plant in 2007, the company has recycled more than 220 million pounds of post-consumer Nylon 6 carpet and more than 36 million pounds of post-consumer carpet filler. In addition, significant fossil fuel usage was avoided through the plant's waste-to-energy processing."

The other recipient was Ron Greitzer from Los Angeles Fiber pictured here with the EPA/CARE Innovations in Carpet Recycling Award – John Cross, EPA (Left), Ron Greitzer, Los Angeles Fiber and Frank Hurd, CRI.

Some background from the press release: "A visionary and unselfish leader, Ron Greitzer has over a decade of involvement in carpet recycling. Since 2000, his Los Angeles Fiber Company has recycled more than 464 million pounds of post-consumer carpet, amounting to more than 40% of the accumulated poundage of recycled carpet reported by CARE since it began collecting data in 2002. Clearly, without Mr. Greitzer's efforts, CARE would not have reached their 2007 milestone of one billion pounds of post-consumer carpet recovered. Greitzer's Reliance Carpet Cushion products are made entirely of post-consumer carpet fiber, and represent a major potential market for post-consumer fiber."

The Recycler of the Year Award

Pictured here are Jenny Cross and Frank Endrenyi, from Mohawk, with the Recycler of the Year Award.

From the press release: "As the organization's Recycler of the Year, CARE recognized Mohawk Industries for its GreenWorks Post-Consumer Recycling Center, which converts post-consumer carpet into engineered resins that can be used in a broad range of valuable post-consumer products. Mohawk describes its GreenWorks system as a "total recycling solution in which NO carpet component is either discarded to landfills or is sent to waste incineration." In 2008, the GreenWorks Center, located in Chatsworth, Georgia, collected 15 million pounds of post-consumer carpet for processing into thermoplastic nylons and other materials. Most engineered resin sales were with Nylon 6,6, but Mohawk also developed automotive, furniture, and housewares applications, among others."

These are some of the people and organizations who have put a great deal of work into CARE and carpet, sustainability, recycling and the environment.

~ Bethany

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