Wes Nelson: No incentive to burn old carpet, at least not for the two largest firms in NorCal

GreenWaste Carpet Recycling is Northern California’s largest collector and sorter of post-consumer carpet and does not use the Crows Landing incinerator for disposal; neither does the only other carpet collector/sorter in Northern California.

The Carpet America Recovery Effort does not encourage or incentivize us for this particular disposal method and for those non-recyclable materials (approximately 15 percent of our overall intake) it is more economically feasible to landfill them.

As reported in numerous recycling and trade journals, carpet mills manufacture a complex, sturdy and stable material for use under strenuous traffic and living conditions. It is not easy to deconstruct.

Thanks to recent efforts and programs administered by CARE, new developments are underway for new products using not only recycled post-consumer content but in some cases also blending it with recycled tire or paint. These innovative developments, along with the addition of two new carpet recycling processing facilities, will generate numerous new jobs in California and dramatically increase the overall collection and recycling of post-consumer carpet, increasing landfill diversion and decreasing any post-consumer carpet sent waste-to-energy incinerators.

We are all concerned about the health and well-being of all area residents and our environment, so I highly encourage and recommend that those concerned with post-consumer carpet being disposed of at Crows Landing research the fuel sources and increase their awareness of available services and alternate drop-off sites for recycling.

This story was originally published July 13, 2017 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Wes Nelson: No incentive to burn old carpet, at least not for the two largest firms in NorCal."