At a time of immense strain on recycling efforts across the country, carpet recycling saw significant progress in 2020 in California, according to the just-released California Carpet Stewardship Program 2020 Annual Report. The California Program achieved an all-time high recycling rate of 23.2% in Q4 2020, with an overall annual recycling rate of 21% in 2020. While it did not meet the target 24% goal, the recycling rate for this fossil-fuel-based material is up 107% over the past five years.
Sixty-eight percent of the carpet collected in 2020 in California was recycled. This %age, called the yield, has grown dramatically over the life of the program from just 28% nine years ago, thanks to expanded processing capacity, growing markets for post-consumer carpet materials and technological advances. Major market development efforts, particularly in the creation of a market for carpet backing material, also known as PC4, has led to this outstanding 68% yield rate.