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The shrinking waste pile from carpet pulls
We used to have huge heaps of old carpet heading out. Now, with more recycling spots, the trash pile is much smaller.
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spencer_chen67mo ago
Actually most carpet recycling is still pretty limited, only about 5% gets recycled nationally. A lot of those programs only take back nylon carpet, not the polyester or polypropylene stuff. The smaller pile might be because more is going to landfills in other states now, tbh.
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alicej257mo ago
Just picture all that polyester carpet piling up in a landfill two states over while we pat ourselves on the back for our neat little nylon pile here. Thanks for the reality check, @spencer_chen6. It's like we're playing a giant shell game with our trash, moving it around so we don't have to look at it. We solve one problem by making a bigger one somewhere else, and call it a win.
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rileyfox7mo ago
That 5% national recycling rate for carpet is a real eye-opener... I used to assume those smaller piles meant we were doing better. But if most of it is just getting shipped to landfills out of state, that's not progress. Learning that only nylon carpet gets recycled in many programs, not the polyester stuff, changes things. I guess the pile is smaller here but the problem just moved somewhere else.
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