CARE Announces Recyclers and Persons of the Year Awards
CARE announced winners of the Recyclers and Persons of the Year Awards for 2021 on May 4th in conjunction with the organization’s 20th Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The 2021 Recyclers of the Year are Georgia Carpet Recovery Center(East Point, GA) and GreenWaste Carpet Recycling (San Jose, CA - Wes Nelson of GreenWaste pictured above left). The 2021 Persons of the Year are Nick Fiore of Circular Polymers(Lincoln, CA - Nick Fiore pictured above right) and Kent Singleton of Georgia Carpet Recovery Center. Executive Director Bob Peoples noted, “This year’s award winners have demonstrated true commitment in the face of relentless challenges. And many of those challenges continue to evolve today.”
Members of the carpet recycling community gathered earlier this month in Minneapolis for CARE’s 20th Annual Conference. Presentations on chemical and mechanical recycling, fiber ID technology and densification were complemented by big-picture discussions on the state of the U.S. Economy and trends in the flooring business.
Floor Focus publisher Kemp Harr interviewed Bob Peoples at the Conference.
A post-Conference survey of attendees showed that, while the content and speakers were well-received, the best part of the gathering for many was the opportunity to network face-to-face for the first time since the 2019 Conference. The Conference was covered in Floor Covering Weekly here.
CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples authored an article in Floor Covering Weekly last month that outlines his vision of the challenges and successes that the carpet recycling industry is experiencing. He notes, “It looks like the next two to three years will be the beginning of a new era for plastics recycling, and carpet is poised to play a key role in meeting the new demand.”
CARE has announced a new round of Product Testing Grants to develop new products or applications for products using post-consumer carpet (PCC) material generated in California. CARE is particularly interested in proposals seeking to create new or reformulate existing products and applications using carpet backing material, or post-consumer carpet calcium carbonate (PC4). CARE has allocated up to $100,000 total to award to California-based projects throughout Cycle 5B (2022-23). Grantees must achieve project completion by December 31, 2023. The program will accept applications on a first-come, first-served basis through the end of 2022. The maximum award is $50,000.
CARE is continuing to follow up with California carpet retailers about the implementation of the Carpet Differential Assessments (CDA). The new assessments, which took effect on April 1, 2022, are:
CARE conducted a survey of California carpet retailers which showed that the majority of respondents had implemented the Carpet Differential Assessments with relatively little problem. Some retailers were hampered by software issues while several others remarked that they had trouble getting information about post-consumer content in products. A similar survey of carpet mills is in process; so far, most respondents said the implementation was somewhat or very easy. Mill respondents indicated that updating software and training staff were the two biggest challenges of the implementation.
