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“I’m on the ground floor of a brand-new industry,” says Jeremy Stroop, a senior Marketing major who works for Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE).

“There’s something wonderful about getting up every morning, knowing that what I do is going to make a difference and that it will positively impact future generations.”

What Jeremy is doing is serving as a “Jack of all trades” for a non-profit organization that is finding market-based solutions for the recycling and reuse of post-consumer carpet.

As one of only two employees working for CARE, which is housed in the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) office building, Jeremy develops marketing plans, deals with public relations issues, fields inquiries, and monitors the web site.

“We have been faced with how to deal with the ‘5 billion pound challenge,’” says Jeremy, aged 30, explaining that “each year, at least 5 billion pounds of discarded carpet goes into the nation’s landfills. One of the goals of CARE is to achieve a 40% reduction of this number by the year 2012.”

The reduction of carpet waste can be achieved in many different ways, Jeremy says. Carpet can be recycled to make new carpet, and it can be converted into raw materials that can be used to make products such as tile backer board, railroad ties, carpet padding, roofing shingles, automotive parts, stepping stones, and landscaping materials.

“Manufacturers and entrepreneurs can find profitable uses for much of this waste,” he says, noting that new ideas for recycling and reusing carpet are continually being developed.

CARE was established in 2002 as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between members of the carpet industry, representatives of government agencies at the federal and state levels, and non-governmental organizations.

A 14-member board, comprised of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state governments, carpet industry executives, and entrepreneurs meets quarterly to brainstorm new ideas for recycling used carpet.

“We’re trying to create demand for products that contain post consumer carpet and to build options for businesses that are appealing both economically and environmentally,” he says.

Already, the initiative is working, Jeremy says, noting that 225 million pounds of carpet waste was diverted in 2005, representing a 108% increase over the previous year.

“We’ve only been in existence for four years, and we’ve already diverted 484 million pounds of carpet waste,” says Jeremy. “Right now, we’re at the tipping point where we’re about to see an exponential growth in these efforts.

“We expect another 100% increase for 2006, almost one-half billion pounds, when the numbers are reported next May at the CARE Annual Meeting.”

For more information about CARE, please visit carpetrecovery.com.