CARE Names 2016 Award Winners

Dalton, GA, June 1, 2016—The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), which develops new processes, products, equipment and markets that reuse the valuable raw materials of post-consumer carpet, awarded Aquafil USA the CARE Recycler of the Year, for Aquafil's historic and continuous consumption of post-consumer nylon 6 carpet across the USA.

Aquafil's reclamation of post-consumer carpet is a first step in the Econyl Regeneration System, which creates recycled nylon 6 fibers from post-consumer carpet in a continuous production cycle. Aquafil's process transforms the nylon 6 back into raw material without any loss of quality.

Rocky Ponders and Robert Goldberg, Columbia Recycling Corporation, were named CARE Persons of the Year. These two individuals transformed their company's business model, expanding post-industrial and post-consumer carpet recycling over the past 36 years. As a result, they increased employment from fewer than 25 employees to over 500 people. Ponders and Goldberg led the company's growth into production of melt filtered pellets for the compounding industry, and the production of carpet cushion manufacturing, using recycled carpet components.