CARE Annual Report Highlights Successes

Dalton, GA, July 29, 2014 -- Carpet America Recovery Effort has reported a more than 52% increase in U.S. gross post-consumer carpet collections from 2012 to 2013.

As revealed in the organization's 2013 Annual Report, CARE partners have diverted 534 million pounds of carpet, or 14% of the 3.7 billion pounds of total discarded carpet, from landfills last year.
 
The environmental impact of the 2013 carpet diversion effort is calculated to be the equivalent of taking 40,822 cars off the road, or saving enough energy to power 17,692 homes for the year, CARE said.

Since its founding in 2002, CARE members have diverted more than 3.25 billion gross pounds of post-consumer carpet from landfills in the U.S.
 
One of the most significant developments was an 87% increase in post-consumer carpet going back to carpet face fiber, now at 28% of recycled pounds.

In addition, post-consumer carpet going into carpet backing represented another 17%, a 25% increase over 2012 data.In addition to carpet diversion figures, CARE also notes that nylon fiber types represented 52% of the collection stream, while PET collection grew to 34%. The amount of carpet reused saw a year-to-year increase of from 5 to 12 million pounds, while recycled carpet decreased slightly from 8 to 5%.

"The challenge in front of us is to reach a viable business framework for CARE members to accomplish post-consumer carpet diversion and recovery in the face of challenges, most notably the rise of PET carpet in the collection stream," stated Brendan McSheehy, Chairman of CARE's Board of Directors.