Salinas Flooring Firm Wins Recycling Award

Salinas, CA, Dec. 17, 2010 -- Wheeler's Flooring America received the Curbee Award last month from BFI Waste Services for its recycling efforts, according to Off 68.

In 2001, Wheeler began to investigate the possibility of recycling the materials the business generates when it replaces flooring on a job site.

"We were spending a lot of money disposing of the carpets, padding, tiles and whatever else we pulled from a building when were on a project," owner Todd Wheeler told the publication. "We were spending thousands of dollars each month."

Even though the disposal charges were passed on to the customer, Wheeler said the situation was ridiculous because the carpeting, in particular, was bulky and used up a lot of landfill.

Wheeler located a company in Los Angeles that would take the old carpeting and padding and then recycle it for use in other products. The only problem was LA Fiber was located hundreds of miles away and did not offer free pick-up.

At that point, Wheeler consulted a relative who owned a trucking company. They worked out an agreement with Ram Trucking whereby Wheeler would fill a 53-foot container with old carpets and padding that would then be hauled off to Southern California.

Wheeler also found another recycler in San Jose that would actually collect a type of padding called "rebond." Wheeler's crews separate the padding so it all doesn't have to be hauled to Los Angeles.

While he has to pay to have the material trucked south and absorb an "emptying" fee that LA Fiber charges, Wheeler says the cost is about what he used to spend to send it to a local landfill.

Because he fills the container every three to four weeks, Wheeler said he'd rather see this material transported for recycling instead of transferred into a Central Coast landfill, even if the dollar savings are minimal.