Carpet recycling fees to rise in California

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has approved increased assessments charged on carpet products sold in that will take effect Feb. 1.

According to the Dalton, Georgia-based Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), which serves as the carpet product stewardship organization for the state of California, it requested the assessment increases in early November. The assessment levels also increased Jan. 1, 2024.

The assessments are charged per square yards of carpeting purchased, with different rates applied to carpet tiles and to broadloom (larger area sized) carpet. The assessments also are slightly lower for carpet products that contain more than 10 percent postconsumer recycled (PCR) content.

The fees to take effect in February are from percent to percent higher than what carpet buyers paid in 2024.

Perhaps surprisingly, the fees that will rise most steeply this year are those assessed to carpet with more than 10 percent PCR rates. The assessment for broadloom carpet with greater than 10 percent PCR content will rise by 54.4 percent and the recycled-content carpet tile assessment will rise by 53.6 percent.

Assessments for lower-recycled content carpet and tiles, meanwhile, will rise from 37 to 41.4 percent. The total assessments for higher PCR-content carpeting remain lower than their counterparts, however: 96 cents or $1.40 per square yard for PCR-content products compared with $1.05 and $1.49 per square yard for products with below 10 percent recycled content.

California law requires CARE to implement a differential assessment on each square yard of carpet sold that reflects its cost burden to recycle.

“We recognize the burden this places on California retailers and their customers,” CARE Executive Director Bob Peoples says. “While the California Carpet Stewardship Program has made huge progress in recent years, new demands and rising costs make this increase necessary.”

CARE says factors driving the increases include a new CalRecycle requirement for it to create a six-month operating reserve balance by the end of 2025.

The organization also says California also is experiencing a continuing decline in carpet sales, meaning the base over which to spread the increased recycling costs is shrinking.

Changes to the assessments are expected to continue, according to CARE, since a recent CalRecycle approval letter says the organization is required to submit assessment levels for the next five years that will address all statutory, regulatory, and plan requirements.