California lawmakers overhauled the state’s troubled carpet recycling program. | optimarc/Shutterstock
Carpet recovery and recycling in California will soon look a little different, after the signing of a new law that will change the recycling rate calculation and emphasize carpet-to-carpet content.
AB 863, which was signed into law on Sept. 27, sets a carpet-to-carpet recycled content mandate of 5% by 2028, mandates sorting at an approved collection site by 2029, establishes reimbursement for those collection sites and tweaks the state’s recycling rate formula. It also requires a visual mark to identify synthetic materials by 2027 for more effective sorting, adds four more stakeholders to the current Carpet America Recovery Effort board, starts a carpet installer apprenticeship program grant system and increases penalties for failing to meet mandates.
It further requires that all producers participate in the program via a producer responsibility organization, which will submit a producer responsibility plan that demonstrates “adequate financial responsibility and financial controls in place, including fraud prevention measures and an audit schedule,” the law text noted.
The Carpet Recycling Institute, representing carpet producers, opposed the bill, according to an Aug. 28 legislative analysis. Comments submitted by the organization state that the existing California Carpet Stewardship Program, administered through CARE, “has been a highly successful program with a continuously increasing recycling rate.”
“The implementation of AB 863 will halt this program and structure and require it to start over,” the Carpet Recycling Institute warned, adding that AB 863’s PRO “has a limited track record and appears to significantly increase the costs of administering recycling programs as compared to other models.”
At the time, the group suggested waiting to see how the PRO under SB 54 fared, which is tasked with overseeing extended producer responsibility for packaging.
“Rather than rush to pass a complex, costly and poorly considered flooring recycling program without the input of stakeholders, we believe it is more prudent to bring all stakeholders together to determine what may be needed to assist recycling in California,” the Carpet Recycling Institute wrote.
The National Stewardship Action Council, which supported the bill, stated in a press release that the current recycling rate formula needs an update, as it is “flawed, which has falsely inflated the recycling rate.”
In addition, NSAC applauded the grants for apprenticeship programs, saying that the purpose is “to ensure carpet installers are properly trained on the proper installation of carpet so it can be easily removed and recycled, and how to properly manage used carpet to ensure it is prepared and brought to a collection location ready to be sorted for recycling.”
Under AB 863, 8% of funds will be allocated to workforce development and the apprenticeship programs. In addition, the penalty for failing to meet mandates increased to $25,000 per day for intentional and negligent violations.
Another NSAC press release noted that since 2011, California consumers have paid a carpet stewardship assessment fee when purchasing carpet in the state, funding CARE.
“However, CARE has continually failed to administer the program effectively and equitably and has required oversight and repeated enforcement by CalRecycle,” the press release noted. “In the meantime, recyclers and collectors have left the state or gone out of business due to a lack of feedstock, while carpet is still being landfilled.”
Democrat Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who sponsored the bill, added in the press release that “even with constant intervention and enforcement actions by CalRecycle and the California legislature, CARE’s failure to successfully manage California’s carpet recycling program has resulted in more carpet in landfills, wasted consumer fee money, constant litigation with the state and serious damage to recycling infrastructure.”
CARE faced enforcement action from the state in 2017, has revised reports that the state deemed noncompliant and agreed to a $1 million settlement in 2021 for failing to meet California’s carpet recycling requirements.
Existing state law mandates a minimum 24% recycling rate. In 2017, that rate was 14%, but started climbing after the enforcement action. It hit 20.9% in 2020, then jumped to 27.9% in 2021, 33.9% in 2022 and 35% in 2023.
“We will fix this program by expanding auditing and increasing fines for bad performance,” Aguiar-Curry said. “We owe it to our state’s consumers to make sure the fees they pay are used effectively, create jobs for California workers, and invest in California’s carpet recycling industry.”
Heidi Sanborn, executive director of NSAC, said the law will create a “noticeably better program.”
Under the law, if the PRO violates the provisions three or more times, the state may find it “permanently ineligible” to continue to operate the plan.
AB 863 will take effect in January.