Stumbled on a stat about carpet waste that blew my mind

I was looking up disposal options for old carpet last week and found out that around 4 billion pounds of carpet goes to landfills every year in the US alone. That number came from the Carpet America Recovery Effort website. I knew we threw away a lot, but not that much. Does anyone here do anything different with their tear outs or just toss it in the dumpster like me?

3 comments

3 Comments

sarahh482mo ago

Have you checked if there's a Carpet America Recovery Effort drop-off site near you? In my experience, a lot of the big home improvement stores will take old carpet if it's dry and clean, but you gotta call first. Your mileage may vary on that one though, some locations just don't have the space. I've also had luck posting on Freecycle or a local buy nothing group, people will take cut-up pieces for mulch or garage floor covers. Take that with a grain of salt but it's worth a shot if you don't want to just dump it.

skyler_mitchell2mo ago

Whoa okay that stat is hard to ignore. I kind of always figured carpet was just one of those things that goes to the dump and nobody thinks twice about it. Honestly I was the same way, I'd just rip it out and toss it without a second thought. But seeing that number makes me want to at least look into recycling centers near me for the next time I have to replace a room.

taylor_flores1mo ago

Buddy of mine runs a small flooring crew and he told me about this one job where he pulled up like 800 sq ft of old shag carpet. He called around to three different recycling places before he found one that would take it. Said they charged him $40 but the dump woulda been $80 so he came out ahead. Plus the recycling place actually reused the padding for some kinda industrial mats. Always thought that was pretty clever.