Werner Braun: Why are we sending good fuel to the landfill?

Every year across this nation, millions of square yards of carpet are sent to landfills, which is not exactly the most glamorous epitaph for one of northwest Georgia’s most prized products. Over the last eight years, the carpet industry has worked diligently to address this issue and has been instrumental in diverting over 1.6 billion pounds of carpet from landfills. In addition to saving landfill space, this effort has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1.4 million metric tons of CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalents), which is the same as taking over one-quarter million cars off the road for a year.

Much of this has been accomplished through the collection and recycling of carpet, but unfortunately not all that is diverted from the general waste stream is recyclable. This could be due to many factors, including the carpet being wet and contaminated, the recycling limitations of different fiber or component types, or there may be material left over after the most valuable portion of the carpet (the face fiber) is separated. Moreover, some materials simply cannot be recycled economically.

So what should be done with these carpet scraps that cannot be recycled back into other products in order to keep them from being landfilled? Is it more environmentally preferable to use this carpet as an alternative fuel to coal than to send it to the landfill? The bulk of all carpet face fiber and backing is petroleum based, including materials such as nylon, polyester, latex and many other backing materials. All of these have high fuel value.

Today, only about 15 percent of all carpet recycled is being used as an alternative fuel despite the fact that the BTU (British thermal unit, measurement of the heat value of a fuel) properties of carpet make it an excellent material as a fuel substitute for mined coal. Post-consumer carpet has an estimated heating value of 13,900 BTUs per pound, or roughly 25 percent more than coal’s heating value.

Post-consumer carpet is also a cleaner fuel than coal. The combustion of one ton of carpet scraps in an industrial boiler releases 3,800 pounds CO2e, while offsetting 7,800 pounds of CO2e from coal combustion. Additionally, a 2008 study by Sound Resource Management for Seattle Public Utilities concluded that using scrap carpet as a coal replacement had substantial climate change and environmental benefits as opposed to simply landfilling used carpet.

The carpet industry continues to work hard to find solutions to realize the highest and best use for recycling carpet. Most of the post-consumer carpet that is recycled today is turned back into new carpet or into engineered resins, which are then made into a wide range of plastic products, such as automobile parts and other consumer products.

Unfortunately, using discarded carpet as an alternative fuel to coal has not been done widely in the United States because of the relative abundance of landfills, opposition from some state officials and a negative public perception.

Nonetheless, the carpet industry feels the benefits of carpet as an alternative fuel make it an important component of the total solution to carpet diversion, and therefore this use should be more universally considered and implemented in the United States.

Disposal costs in landfills continue to rise faster than inflation and not every state has readily available land to use for landfill disposal. The city of New York alone transports almost 11,000 tons of waste every day to such places as Ohio and South Carolina for disposal. The cost amounts to over $300 million each year, and that doesn’t even take into account the carbon footprint left behind.

Using carpet as an alternative fuel helps slow down the continued depletion of fossil fuels. It creates lower greenhouse gas emissions versus coal, along with having the higher BTU value.

Make no mistake: The carpet industry will continue to work towards the highest value of recovering post-consumer carpet, but if efforts to divert carpet from the landfill are to be sustainable, then having options such as alternative fuels is imperative to get the most benefit of the carpet that cannot be economically recycled.

For more information about the carpet industry’s efforts to recycle post-consumer carpet, please go to the CARE (Carpet America Recovery Effort) website www.carpetrecovery.org.

Werner Braun is president of the Carpet and Rug Institute.

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