HALF a tonne of rubbish on average is produced annually by every person in the UK. Business, however, generates over 90% of Britain’s waste, 300 million tonnes a year and a third of that is
from the construction industry, including floorcoverings. Meanwhile, the UK’s available landfill sites are nearly full. Despite these alarming facts, businesses are still not universally committed to urgent action.

The catastrophic consequences of squandering the earth’s scarce natural resources are clearly appalling. Businesses must act. And it’s not purely about philanthropy. Self-interest is key. Major savings can be made by applying the principles of reuse, reduce and recycle. Last month we reported moves, under the auspices of WRAP, to slash construction waste. This scheme, plus the SWMP (Site Waste Management Plans) regulations and the soaring costs of landfill, will hopefully force more firms to respond.

Carpets removed during refurbishment, because of their bulk, contribute massively to the waste mountain. Carpet manufacturers, until a few years ago, were reluctant to help reclaim their products. One big reason is that carpets are difficult and expensive to recycle. The face fibre, typically nylon, polyester, polypropylene or wool and sometimes a combination of those, has to be separated, identified and reprocessed which is costly. Then there is also the backing materials, such as latex or jute in residential carpets, and the likes of PVC or bitumen in contract products.

Thanks to a few dedicated individuals, Carpet Recycling UK (CRUK) was established in 2007. CRUK recently held its third annual conference. There was justified applause for its significant achievements, including over 42,000 tonnes of carpet waste diverted from landfill to recycling or energy recovery last year alone.
Attending as a delegate, I was impressed by the speakers’ commitment. CRUK is now enthusiastically supported by 14 UK and European carpet manufacturers, including large and small companies, whose generosity facilitates invaluable research work, helping to make carpet recycling more cost effective and more widely undertaken.

I was also struck that certain UK carpet manufacturers were conspicuously absent from the CRUK list of sponsors (which we publish on page 22). The firms not on that list, let’s call the carpet recycling detractors, owe it to their customers to explain why they have failed to support CRUK, an industry body which works to take back and recycle their polluting waste products for which they pay nothing!
Better still, they should immediately get behind these efforts to help make good use of the tonnes of waste carpet clogging up our exhausted landfill sites, or perhaps next time we’ll actually publish their names and shame them.

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