In a new report, the campaign organisation says there are more than 40 highly toxic chemicals in carpets that harm public health and impede recycling. These chemicals are known to cause respiratory disease, heart attacks, strokes, asthma, and immune and developmental health problems in children.

The report, 'Eliminating toxics in carpets: lessons for the future of recycling', outlines strategies to protect public health and the environment by eliminating these hazardous chemicals from carpets, increasing carpet recycling rates, and improving product transparency.

Carpets take up a 60-per-cent share of the US flooring market, according to the HBN, with 11 billion square feet sold each year; of that, only 5 percent is recycled, with a huge amount of carpet dumped in American landfills or burned in incinerators – releasing pollutants into the air, soil and water.

The report complements a landmark bill in California, signed earlier this month, which will force major changes in how carpet is made and waste handled, compelling the state to double its current carpet recycling rate by 2020 and ending the consumer subsidisation of carpet incineration.

“We applaud California for distinguishing itself as the only state in the country to address the growing waste problem linked with the disposal of carpets,” said HBN chief executive Gina Ciganik. “While an important first step, much more needs to be done to protect human health and the environment. We also need to eliminate the most dangerous toxics from further use and demand the design of safe, environmentally friendly, sustainable carpets.”

Jim Vallette, the network’s research director and the report’s lead author, added: “Protecting public health while achieving desired recycling rates, particularly those just mandated in California, will require a combination of strategies, including product transparency, recycled feedstock screening, and less toxic carpet design. Fully realised, this is a formula that works: it boosts recycling rates by creating clean material streams, protects human health and the environment, and saves energy and other resources.”

According to HBN, consumers are kept in the dark about the harmful chemicals in carpets, not least because the vast majority on the market are in some way certified “green” or otherwise publicly rewarded, even though most contain toxic substances that aren’t disclosed to consumers. The report calls on regulators to order the full disclosure of carpet elements, as well as their risks to human health.

Children at high risk
Eliminating toxics is not only necessary for manufacturers to meet their new recycling rates but it will also have major benefits for human health, especially for children.

“Developing foetuses, infants, and children, are especially vulnerable and exposure to even small amounts of these toxic substances can lead to disease early in life, later in life, or even across generations,” said Judy Levin, of the Center for Environmental Health. “The youngest, who spend much of their time at ground level, will benefit the most from efforts to remove toxic substances from carpet.”

The report concludes with a call for the fundamental transformation of the carpet industry. Recommendations include:

• banning the most toxic substances identified in this report and replacing them with other readily available, less-toxic chemicals;
• incentivising the design of fully recyclable carpets and removing substances that impede that process;
• ensuring that toxic substances in carpet waste are identified and removed before they’re recycled into new consumer products, including carpet;
• increasing and enforcing protections for workers in the recycling industry; and
• requiring that manufacturers and retailers fully and publicly disclose all material contents in new carpet.

The report says every toxic substance found in carpets could be replaced with a non-harmful alternative, and there is evidence that the industry is beginning to respond, albeit in a piecemeal fashion. The largest carpet company in the US informed HBN that it “no longer uses fly ash as a raw material in any of its carpet products”. Three major producers say that they sell carpet fibres without fluorinated stain repellants, and others have implemented recycled content screening practices or launched new carpet lines that are better suited to recyclability. But it’s time to scale up such solutions, the report concludes.

“We’ve seen the value of recovered materials improve when manufacturers use simpler and less toxic materials in design,” said Wes Sullens of the US Green Building Council. “When manufacturers limit or remove toxic additives from product formulations – and fully disclose and track those ingredients from production through use and recycling ­- the overall value of materials are increased. In this day and age, a product with contents that are known, preferred and desired by recyclers will inherently have more value and lead to greater recovery and reutilisation than those that are unknown.”