Jul 1 - New Carpet Recycling Program Starts Today
California’s Carpet Stewardship law was signed into law last year and will now take effect today, July 1st. Under the new law, customers will now be charged 5 cents more per square yard of carpet, money that will go towards increasing the diversion and recycling of carpet. Retailers must include the $0.05/sq yd Carpet Stewardship Assessment fee as an after-tax line item on the customer invoice starting July 1, 2011.
Product stewardship programs are industry-run programs. Instead of the state collecting the funds and distributing them to recyclers, a nonprofit called Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) will operate the program, provide consumer education, measure progress and report to the state. This law is designed to find ways to incentivize the growth of carpet reclamation and recycling and still allow the market to work.
This program will help reduce carpet from being disposed of in landfills, which currently makes up 3.2% of all waste sent there. According to CARE, that's 400 million pounds of carpet are discarded annually. Already, the new law has spurred investment for carpet recyclers.
CAW supports extended producer responsibility efforts such as this, and has also supported paint and thermostat stewardship programs recently.
To read more about the Carpet Stewardship law, click here.