Carpet Recycling Information: LEED Points, Model Specification, Bid Template and More!

A smorgasbord of carpet recycling info: LEED Points, Model Specification and Bid Template for Carpet Recycling

Here is a great resource for architects, designers and others in the green building world. I found it on the USGBC Long Island chapter blog in an articled titled CarpetCycle: Carpet Recycling for LEED.

It’s about the LEED points associated with carpet recycling. I blogged about this before as part of another article [see Indoor Air Quality for Architects, Designers and Builders: Fact Sheet], but I think it’s worth another mention all on its own.

LEED Credit Overview

For certain LEED rating systems, LEED projects can earn points toward certification if they recycle old carpeting.

For new construction projects, there is no used carpet to recycle. Therefore, this only applies to LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EB:O&M) and LEED for Commercial Interiors (CI).

For LEED EB: O&M, the project can earn Materials and Resources, Credit 9: Solid Waste Management – Facility Alterations and Additions. To earn this 1 point, at least 70% of waste (by volume) from the facility’s renovations must be diverted. This includes recycling and reusing materials, including carpets.

For LEED CI, the project can earn up to 2 points for Materials and Resources, Credit 2: Construction Waste Management. To earn these points, a certain percentage of construction and demolition debris should be recycled and/or salvaged (including carpets). To earn 1 point, 50% must be recycled and to earn 2 points, 75% must be recycled.

Here’s another valuable resource: there is a model specification for carpet recycling  on the Carpet America Recovery Effort website (CARE), as well as a template for a bid proposal for carpet reclamation.

So, take a little bit from here and a little bit from there, and thanks for your hard work recycling and reclaiming carpet from the landfill. To see how much carpet was diverted last year, check out CARE’s Annual Report.

What other sources of carpet recycling information do you refer to?

Bethany