According to the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), California's Carpet Stewardship Bill, AB 2398, was signed into law yesterday. The bill incentivizes carpet recycling by rewarding entrepreneurs and inventors who produce marketable products made from post-consumer carpet. It also requires manufacturers to add an assessment of 5 cents per square yard on all carpet sold in the state, through Jan. 1, 2013. The tax would be remitted quarterly to CARE or retained by the manufacturer to bolster its recycling efforts based upon prior approval of its stewardship plan. The full text of the bill can be read here.

Manufacturers, either singly or as a group, will be required to establish a stewardship plan with the state for implementing carpet recycling. Stewardship plans will encompass consumer education efforts, the assessment of fees, and progress measurement and reporting.

To develop their required stewardship plan, manufacturers will work with California regulatory agencies with the help of CARE. Founded in 2002, CARE is a non-profit organization comprising manufacturers, recycling entrepreneurs, and government environmental agencies that works to find market-based solutions for recycling carpet and diverting it from landfills. CARE is listed in the AB 2398 legislation as the carpet industry's designated stewardship organization.

CARE said it will begin working immediately with CalRecycle to develop a stewardship plan that will increase carpet recycling through the funding mechanism that is established in the bill.