Dive Brief:
- The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), an agency that administers California’s carpet stewardship program, will increase funding for its carpet recycling stewardship program through larger incentive payments.
- The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) approved the change, and sees the increase as a way to encourage recycling across the state.
- To cover the increased incentives, consumers will be charged an additional 10 cents per square yard of carpet purchased. The fee was previously set at 5 cents per square yard.
Dive Insight:
CalRecycle found that CARE was not fully compliant when it came to its stewardship plan. The recycling rate of carpet across California hasn’t grown past 13%. The target rate for 2016 is 16%, while the goal for 2020 is set at 24%.
CARE made other changes to the program, including adding incentives for materials such as calcium carbonate (found in carpet backing) that wasn’t previously included as part of the incentives.
