CARPET RECYCLING
CoRR’s goal is to work with carpet manufacturers, removers, sorting distributors, recyclers, and material end product consumers to increase carpet take back locally in New York City, through siting a new carpet take back facility in the New York City Metro Region. Over 100 million yards or approximately a billion pounds of spent carpet is annually removed in New York City and the surrounding region. Currently, non-reclaimed or recycled carpet is diverted to landfills that are at an average distance of over 400 miles or are burned in regional incinerators.
SOLUTION
Capturing spent carpet within a short distance of its removal and submitting it to proven deconstruction, separation, cleaning and recycling application technologies in a central location with truck and barge access will eliminate a shipping distance involving two to four transfers and lost transit time, pipeline inventories, and an inequitable cost- equivalent-to-value ratio. There are more than a dozen logical sites for establishing a carpet recycling facility within New York City. A typical location under study is the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Building 128 is slated for tenant refurbishing utilizing State and City grant funds totaling $17 million, with the BNY targeting “green” light industry opportunities.
Many carpet manufacturing companies have invested in carpet deconstruction and component processing plants. The following chart shows the broad diversity of reclaimed resources and targeted end-uses that these manufacturing operations produce.