Eastman Will Use Carbon Renewal Technology to Recycle Carpet Into Other Products

(Eastman CEO and board chair Mark Costa. Credit: Eastman)

Eastman has announced that post-consumer carpet will now be recycled through Eastman’s carbon renewal technology and converted into new materials to serve new and useful purposes.

Eastman has partnered with Circular Polymers, a company that reclaims post-consumer waste products for recycling. Through this agreement, Eastman has secured a consistent source of feedstock for carbon renewal technology, a chemical recycling method that recently began commercial operation at Eastman’s primary manufacturing site in Kingsport, Tennessee. Eastman says this project will divert millions of pounds of carpet from landfills in the first year of the agreement.

Carpet pulled from houses and commercial buildings is a particularly problematic landfill item because transport is not easy – carpet is heavy and bulky – and there is a lot of it. More than 3 billion pounds of carpet were sent to US landfills in 2018, according to Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE).

Under this agreement, Circular Polymers will collect polyester carpet from homes and businesses and recycle it at the company’s California reclamation facility, where they utilize a processing technology that separates the PET fiber from the carpeting. Circular Polymers densifies the fiber, which enables its efficient transport by railcar to Eastman’s Tennessee manufacturing site for chemical recycling, where it will produce new materials with certified recycled content. Those materials will be used to produce products used in Eastman markets, including textiles, cosmetics and personal care, and ophthalmics.

Eastman expects to use up to 50 million pounds of waste plastic in carbon renewal technology operations in 2020, and projects are currently underway to significantly expand that amount.

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