Products

Carpet and Product Stewardship

Approximately 3 million tons of carpet and rugs are disposed of annually, representing about 1.2% of the national municipal solid waste stream. In Washington and Oregon, carpet comprises about 3% of the municipal solid waste stream. The most recent data for the recycling rate of carpet is 2.3% in Washington in 2010 (up from less than 2% in 2009), about 2% in Oregon in 2010 (up from less than 1% in 2009), and 4.5% nation-wide in 2010.

End-markets for carpet-derived materials exist or are in development in various places in the U.S., including those for carpet fiber, auto parts, and wood-plastic composites.

What Is The Problem?

Discarded carpet is a difficult to manage waste that is recovered for recycling at very low rates. Carpet is made from petroleum products and requires a great deal of energy to produce. Most carpet in the U.S. is manufactured in Southern states, where energy is derived largely from coal. The tremendous fossil fuel intensity of carpet inputs and production makes the emissions of carpet manufacturing extremely high.

Seattle Public Utilities commissioned a study on the environmental impacts from carpet discard management methods (PDF, 79K), which found that recycling was by far the preferred end-of-life choice for carpet from a greenhouse gas emissions perspective, reducing emissions by 8,300 pounds of eCO2 per ton of carpet recycled. In fact, each ton of used carpet recovered for recycling could be shipped more than 40,000 miles by truck (more than ten times the distance across the US) before recycling would lose its position as the best management option for discarded carpet. Yet, carpet recycling rates continue to remain low.

The Product Stewardship Solution

Various stakeholders in Washington and Oregon worked during the past decade to increase public agency purchasing of recycled-content carpet and recycle discarded carpet in the region. In 2002, the Washington Department of Ecology and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality were among the 22 state signatories, along with leaders in the carpet industry, to the National Carpet Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding. The 2002 MOU was an industry-driven solution and was voluntarily agreed to by all parties. Unfortunately, it has fallen drastically short of its 20-25% carpet recycling goal and has only achieved a 4.5% national recycling rate over the last 10 years.

In 2009 and 2010, the Seattle Public Utilities and King County initiated the Northwest Carpet Recycling Strategy Project, which has worked with state and local governments, research university representatives in Washington, Oregon, California and British Columbia, and the carpet and recycling industries, to support the development of carpet processing capacity and end-markets for carpet in the Pacific Northwest. The project’s Northwest Carpet Recycling Strategy (PDF, 84K) that is currently being implemented includes product stewardship as a solution.

Legislation adopted in California and introduced in Washington and New York states requires a carpet stewardship program funded by producers that sell carpet into those states. Visit the Carpet Policies & Legislation pages for more information.

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