By
Bill Sheehan, Executive Director
I
spent a year during 2011-2012 as an NGO representative in the carpet industry
dialogue on increasing carpet recycling.
The dialogue broke down because the industry wanted governments to agree
to voluntary recycling goals (which had failed before) but they refused to offer any financing mechanism to build the needed recycling infrastructure. The industry strenuously opposed EPR for
carpet which provides such financing in California, which has the
nation's only carpet EPR law.
This year Shaw Industries, the largest carpet manufacturer in the world, came
out in support of a container deposit bill in Maryland (HB 1085, which
subsequently died).
Interesting. It turns out that carpet made from PET
plastic is the fastest-growing segment of the carpet industry. They get PET plastic from soda and water
bottles collected in states with bottle bills, which provide clean material.
The
problem is that carpet made from PET plastic is generally non-recyclable (there
are a few small volume applications). And the increasing trend towards PET
carpet threatens to undermine the existing carpet recycling infrastructure in
the US, which is based on recyclable nylon carpet.
It
is evident that a major reason the carpet industry opposes EPR measures for
their products is that they are more interested in using cheaper, non-recyclable PET feedstock than in recycling their carpet. So Shaw
Industries supports government intervention to ensure a supply of non-recyclable
feedstock, while opposing EPR laws to finance carpet recycling.
It
looks like the only thing that will change this dynamic is more state laws like
California's. For a model bill, see this link.
PHOTO: rentitgreen.blogspot.com
This is a really interesting post, Bill. First because it shows clearly that the deposit system is the way the manufacturing/recycling industry would organize collection. I once heard that even Kim Jeffreys of Nestle let slip a speculation about using deposits to get access to rePet -- until he had his knuckled rapped and switched to the conventional waste management approach for the speciously named "Recycling Reinvented." (Dan Knapp would love this: who said it needed reinventing??)
ReplyDeleteThe interesting question for carpet makers when they see the handwriting on the wall for carpet EPR is: how can they make a carpet that won't have to be wasted?