I found this an interesting article on recycling carpet and padding. Unfortunately, it's only done in a very limited area. Maybe one day it will be more widespread. Since millions of pounds of carpet goes into landfills each year, I hope that day is soon.

Processing Carpet by Shearing

Carpet recycling involves a labor intensive process of a raw material that is bulky, heavy and hard to handle.  In addition to that, carpet recycling is a concept that has not been on the radar of most consumers.

The vast majority of residential carpet is made of one of four primary fibers:
 

• Nylon 6
• Nylon 6.6
• Polypropylene
• PET

Identifying the fiber of any piece of carpet requires a special device - a spectrometer - that analyzes the composition, allowing us to determine whether the piece of carpet is recyclable.

Carpeting is not marked with a label of its fiber content and you cannot tell by looking, either.  Every individual piece received in our carpet recycling plant is analyzed, then sorted based on type.

 From there, the nylon carpet is sheared - a process that separates the majority of the pile from the carpet backing.  The sheared nylon is used in the manufacture of a wide range of consumer and industrial products.

 

The Beast

Recycling anything is a complicated process involving logistics, product handling, understanding commodity markets and more. Carpet recycling is no different.  At the center of the transformation from unwanted carpet to reusable raw materials is a high-speed, large-capacity, technologically-advanced computer-driven carpet shearer.

This massive machine surgically slices through thousands of pounds of Dalton, Georgia's finest, every day.

This apparatus is processes thousands of pounds of carpet every day. It is a workhouse and responsible for a healthy share of landfill-averting activity.

Once carpet pieces are collected, transported, unloaded, sorted and prepared, this and other pieces of specialized recycling equipment spring into action.  Through a mix of human effort and mechanical expertise, tons of unwanted carpet never find their way to the landfill.