Carpet Industry does 'CARE' and Recycle: Werner Braun

Werner Braun: The Carpet industry does CARE. Growth in carpet recycling is a testament to industry’s long-term commitment to the environment

In his series of weekly columns for Dalton’s Daily-Citizen Newspaper, Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) President Werner Braun talks about how the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) is bringing value to the emerging post-consumer carpet recycling industry by reusing, recycling, and otherwise diverting used carpet so that it does not end up in landfills. The article is titled: Carpet industry does 'CARE'.

CARE was founded in 2002, as part of a collaborative agreement between the carpet industry, regulating bodies, and others. The growth of CARE, as well as the growth in carpet recycling in general, has been steady, and significant progress has been made towards diverting a larger and larger portion of the 4.7 billion pounds of carpet currently going into landfills each year. In 2009, 311 million pounds of post-consumer carpet was diverted from the landfill and 246 million pounds of carpet was recycled into carpet and other consumer products. This represents an increase of 6 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, from 2008 to 2009. Not bad for a difficult year economically for the carpet industry overall. Ninety-seven percent of the material collected was put to use in the United States.

Jobs associated with carpet recycling have also grown, with 1,661 people employed – that’s was increase of 51% between 2008 and 2009. As Braun says in the article:

“Being “green” is a personal choice. But being “green” is becoming a reality. Carpet is recyclable and since 2002 CARE has diverted 1.6 billion pounds of carpet from the landfill, decreased GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by 1.2 million MTCE (metric tons carbon equivalent) — which is equal to not burning 10 million barrels of oil — and has created over 1,660 primary jobs. In fact, one secondary job is created for every primary job. The number of collection facilities has grown from five in 2002 to 72 currently.

As the year 2012 approaches, the 10-year study with CARE is closing, but the positive environmental footprint isn’t. This is only the beginning.”

Thank you, Werner, and thanks to everyone who is making a sustainable difference for the carpet industry through CARE!

~Bethany