CARE and California Law 2398 California law AB 2398, also referred to as California Carpet Stewardship, has a mighty aim: to increase the landfill diversion and recycling of the post-consumer carpet that is generated in California. The law was passed in 2010, and by July of the next year it was up and running, adding a stewardship assessment of $0.05 per square yard onto carpet and carpet tile sold in California. The funds are used to make it easier to recycle carpet, create new consumer products with recycled content, and increase ways to reuse carpet. Almost $10 million has been collected as a result of this stewardship assessment — and the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) has already deployed close to $7 million to implement AB 2398. Recently CARE has come up with some very creative and productive ways to further leverage these funds, which should result in greater utilization of recycled goods and additional financial incentives for those who work in those carpet recovery businesses. CARE has already established several financial incentives for recycling, such as an incentivizing program in which businesses which process recycled carpet get either $0.03 or $0.06 per pound of recovered waste, depending on the quality of the recycled goods. Now, CARE is adding a new “growth incentive” program, aimed at increasing the amount of carpet that is recycled, which pays $0.10 per pound for every pound of recycled carpet that is recycled over and above the stated goal for a given financial quarter. CARE is using these stewardship assessment funds in many creative ways, which should prove beneficial to the aims of California law AB 2398. Soon, CARE will be hiring an expert in the field to work in California to facilitate the diversion and recycling of all its post-consumer carpet, including that difficult to recycle non-nylon carpet made from polypropylene or polyester known as PET, or polyethylene terephthalate. And it will be funding a research grant to a California university research institution to facilitate the growth of the PET recovery and recycling program in that state. This is all good news for us at the Carpet and Rug Institute, for the CARE organization, and for residents of California. Keep up the good work, CARE. - Werner criblog.org
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 16:00:01 +0000