60% more carpet diverted from landfill in 2010

Figures revealing a 60% increase in the amount of carpet waste diverted from landfill last year show that the industry is on track to divert 25% of material from landfill by 2015, according to Carpet Recycling UK.

At its third annual conference last week, the trade body, which represents carpet producers, retailers and recyclers, said around 10% of the 420,000 tonnes of carpet waste arisings generated last year were diverted from landfill.

Of this 10%, 3.5% is recycled, with the remainder fed into energy-from-waste facilities, it added.

The body has now set itself an interim target to increase the 10% to 12% this year which would equate to around 50,000 tonnes of material. It also aims to increase the number of recycling outlets to 40 nationwide as well as to conduct further collection trials and attract additional funding to support technical work on end-market development.

Commenting on the figures, Carpet Recycling UK (CRUK) co-ordinator Jane Gardner said: Such progress is very encouraging and we are on course to achieve 25% landfill diversion by 2015, however it is important to keep the momentum going,

I feel our third CRUK Annual Conference provided a platform for members from across the carpet value chain to network and gain increased awareness of recycling outlets, current achievements and, of course, the challenges that still lie ahead, she commented.

She added: We welcome WRAPs decision to focus on textiles in their new three-year Business Plan as a further driver that will help us to achieve our goals.

The 25% diversion goal was set at the 2010 CRUK conference, where the body revealed a 5% diversion rate for 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story). Earlier this year, it called on councils to segregate more carpet at civic amenity sites to help it to reach its goals (see letsrecycle.com story).

CRUK

The conference also heard that CRUKs membership has grown to 62 across the supply chain, with 14 carpet manufacturers providing core funding. Manufacturing members diverted from 4,000 tonnes of their post-industrial waste, such as offcuts, from landfill in 2010 with both hard and soft waste recycled in high value applications, such as underlay.

The number of specialist carpet recyclers in the UK has increased from six to 24 in the past two years of whom eight are reuse specialists and 16 are recycling and fuel flock producers.

At the event, an update was also given on-going research into outlets and end-markets for recycled carpet waste which saw 50 small-scale development trials being undertaken last year. These included bitumen and fibre recovery from carpet tiles, wool and polypropylene reprocessing.