Policies & Legislation

Carpet and Product Stewardship

Northwest States

Washington SB 6341 was introduced in January 2012 but did not pass. The bill would have required carpet producers that sell carpet in Washington State to participate in a carpet stewardship program by January 1, 2013. The carpet stewardship organization would be required to submit a product stewardship program plan for financing, collecting, transporting, processing and recycling of discarded carpet to the Department of Ecology (Department) by January 1, 2014.

A phased implementation of the approved product stewardship program plan would begin in 2015, starting with Clark, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties, and then the remaining counties between 2016 and 2018; this was amended (SSB 6341, (PDF)) to King, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties, and then the remaining counties between 2018 and 2020. The program must be provided throughout the state at no cost to all entities that remove carpet, including carpet and flooring installers, construction and demolition companies and residents. Collection services must include, at a minimum, one public collection location per one hundred thousand residents, and a minimum of one public collection site per county.

Beginning in 2014, carpet stewardship organizations would be required to collect annual fees from producers selling carpet in or into Washington based on their market share. These funds will pay for program operation costs and expenses as well as education and outreach efforts and administrative activities. The program will not charge a user fee at the time discarded carpet is collected, nor will there be new taxes. The total amount of annual fees collected must not exceed the amount necessary to recover costs incurred by the Department and the stewardship organization to implement the requirements of the carpet stewardship program. The Department would make the stewardship plans, as well as required annual reports and a list of compliant and non-compliant producers, publicly available on their website. The stewardship organizations must set performance goals and submit an annual report beginning in 2015 and each year thereafter, to the Department.

The Council wrote a carpet recycling fact sheet and Q&A. Read the Senate Bill Report (PDF) for pro and con statements. Also, visit King County’s WA Carpet Bill Blog to comment and learn more. Watch the 50-minute Senate Environment Committee hearing and testimony on TVW.

California AB 2398, the carpet product stewardship bill, passed in 2010 and amends the California Public Resources Code (Chapter 20, Section 42970-42983). The law requires that carpet producers, collectively or individually, submit a stewardship plan to increase the recycling and diversion of postconsumer carpet, increase the recyclability of carpets, and incentivize the market growth of secondary products made from postconsumer carpet, to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) by September 30, 2011.

From July 1, 2011 until January 1, 2013, carpet manufacturers are required to add an assessment of $0.05 per square yard on the purchase price of all carpet sold in the state by that manufacturer, to be used by the carpet stewardship organization to “achieve measureable improvements in the landfill diversion and recycling of postconsumer carpet.” Beginning January 1, 2013, manufacturers shall add an assessment in an amount which is sufficient to meet, but not exceed, the anticipated cost of carrying out the plan, to be approved by CalRecycle. Such plans must include a funding mechanism that provides sufficient funding to carry out the plan, and include education and outreach efforts to consumers, commercial building owners, carpet installation contractors, and retailers to promote their participation in the plan. Plans must also include a process by which the financial activities of the carpet stewardship organization or individual manufacturer will be subject to an independent audit, which may be reviewed by CalRecycle.

Until April 1, 2015, the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) is required to serve as the carpet stewardship organization, afterwhich manufacturers may individually or collectively form carpet stewardship organizations to design, submit and administer carpet stewardship plans. Each carpet stewardship organization submitting a required carpet stewardship plan must pay CalRecycle an annual administrative fee on or before July 1, 2012. The annual administrative fee will be set by CalRecycle to adequately cover, but not exceed, the costs of administering and enforcing the law, including program development and regulatory costs, and “may not exceed 5 percent of the aggregate assessment collected for the preceding calendar year.”

Beginning July 1, 2013, carpet manufacturers are required to submit annual reports to CalRecycle which include the amount of carpet sold in the state, the amount of postconsumer carpet recycled and the amount recovered but not recycled, the total cost of implementing the plan, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the plan, and examples of educational materials that were provided to consumers.

See CalRecycle’s Carpet Stewardship Program for more information.