How to Recycle Carpets & Rugs
Area rugs, room-size carpets, and decorative floor coverings in wool, synthetic, and natural fibers. Reuse is straightforward and recycling is close to nonexistent outside one state.
Quick answer
Area rugs are excluded from carpet recycling entirely, so donate or sell those. California's program does not accept anything smaller than 11 by 15 feet, which rules out every ordinary household rug. Wall-to-wall carpet can be recycled in California, usually for a per-ton tip fee, and New York's law is enacted but not yet working on the ground. Everywhere else, the installer hauls it away and it is landfilled.
- Recyclable
- Not curbside
- Typical value
- Synthetic rugs resell for little and are not worth much effort. Wool, antique, and handmade rugs are the opposite and hold value well enough to justify professional cleaning or repair. There is no scrap price for carpet; in California the recycling is funded by an assessment paid at purchase, though most drop-off sites still charge a tip fee by the ton, and elsewhere disposal is a cost.
- Donate / take-back
- Available
- 1Vacuum both faces and lift out pet hair, the usual reason a rug gets refused
- 2Check the fiber, since wool and handmade rugs hold value that synthetics do not
- 3Clean stains and air out odors before offering it to anyone
- 4Roll rather than fold, and tie it so it does not unroll in transit
- 5Separate rubber or felt underlay, which is a different material with different outlets
- 6Photograph and measure it for a listing
- 7Measure an area rug before hunting for a recycler; anything under 11 by 15 feet is outside the program entirely
- 8In California, look up a drop-off site through Carpet America Recovery Effort and ask its tip fee, since most charge by the ton
- 9Keep wall-to-wall carpet dry and free of debris, because water, smoke, or fire damage disqualifies it
- 10Ask your installer to take the old pad separately, since clean take-up pad recycles more readily than the carpet
- CARE drop-off sites in California, for wall-to-wall carpet of 165 square feet or more, usually for a tip fee
- Rug dealers and consignment shops, for wool, antique, and handmade pieces
- Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Habitat ReStore, for clean rugs in good condition
- Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Buy Nothing groups
- Home staging companies and community theaters
- Carpet retailers and installers, who sometimes remove old material as part of a job
- Bulky-waste pickup or transfer station, which is the realistic end point elsewhere
Two states have carpet stewardship laws and only one has a working program. California's dates to AB 2398 in 2010, amended by AB 1158 in 2017 and by AB 729 in 2020, and is administered by the Carpet America Recovery Effort. It is funded by a differential assessment on every square yard sold, effective February 1, 2025: broadloom at $1.05 per square yard, or $0.96 if the product carries 10 percent or more certified post-consumer content, and carpet tile at $1.49, or $1.40 with that content. Tile costs more because most tile recycling happens on the East Coast and freight is expensive. A revised structure went to CalRecycle on July 17, 2026 and would take effect January 1, 2027 if approved, after the director disapproved two earlier versions. New York enacted the second law, ECL Article 27 Title 33, effective December 28, 2024, notable for covering artificial turf as well and for banning PFAS-treated carpet from sale after December 31, 2026. Its program was targeted at July 1, 2026, but New York's environmental agency issued an enforcement discretion letter in December 2025, so do not count on a working free drop-off network there yet. Everywhere else there is no law and no consumer network.
Face fiber decides everything. Nylon is the economic engine of carpet recycling, and nylon 6 in particular can be depolymerized back to caprolactam and respun into new fiber, a genuine closed loop. Polypropylene has too little value to support a recycling business on its own and rides along with nylon. Polyester is the problem: CARE describes very few outlets for recycled PET from carpet and calls it a major negative cost factor for collectors, meaning it costs money to handle. PET is also now the dominant residential carpet fiber, which is the honest explanation for why a program can collect plenty of carpet and still land near a 38 percent recycling rate. Watch out for the other number CARE publishes: 90.5 percent of collected California carpet was recycled in 2024, but that is a process yield measured against what was collected, not against what was thrown away. The rate that matters to a household is 38.5 percent. Carpet pad is the real success story, and often more recyclable than the carpet on top of it: bonded rebond cushion is made from 100 percent recycled foam and the Carpet Cushion Council put it at over 85 percent of US cushion production, sharing an end market with recovered mattress foam.
- Donate to staging companies for home sales
- Offer to pet shelters for animal bedding
- Use as protective covering for garage or workshop floors
- Cut into smaller pieces for car mats or utility rugs
- Donate to community theaters for stage sets
- Use for soundproofing in basement or workshop areas
Accepted
- Area rugs and room-sized carpets
- Persian, Oriental, and handmade rugs
- Synthetic fiber rugs (nylon, polyester, polypropylene)
- Wool and natural fiber rugs
- Decorative throw rugs and runners
- Outdoor and patio rugs
- Commercial-grade area rugs
Not Accepted
- Heavily stained or odorous rugs
- Water-damaged or moldy carpets
- Rugs with pet damage or contamination
- Rugs with deteriorating backing or heavy wear
- Wall-to-wall carpet remnants (see construction category)
- Rugs treated with chemicals or fire retardants
Estimated value: Synthetic rugs resell for little and are not worth much effort. Wool, antique, and handmade rugs are the opposite and hold value well enough to justify professional cleaning or repair. There is no scrap price for carpet; in California the recycling is funded by an assessment paid at purchase, though most drop-off sites still charge a tip fee by the ton, and elsewhere disposal is a cost.
Donation
- Goodwill Industries
- Salvation Army
- Habitat for Humanity ReStore
- Local consignment shops
- Homeless shelters and transitional housing
Manufacturer/Retail Take‑Back
- Potential VOCs in synthetic backing materials
- Chemical treatments for stain resistance
- Fire retardant chemicals in some commercial rugs
Can carpet actually be recycled where I live?
Only reliably in California, and usually for a fee. California's program dates to AB 2398 in 2010 and is run by the Carpet America Recovery Effort, funded by an assessment charged per square yard at sale: $1.05 for broadloom and $1.49 for carpet tile, dropping to $0.96 and $1.40 for products with at least 10 percent certified post-consumer content. CARE lists 159 public drop-off sites in the state, and most charge a tip fee by the ton, with published examples running from free for prepared carpet up to around $90 to $125 per ton. New York enacted the second state law in December 2024, but its program launch has been softened by an enforcement discretion letter, so treat it as not yet operational. Elsewhere, the practical answer is that your installer hauls it away and it goes to landfill.
Are area rugs covered by carpet recycling programs?
No, and this catches people out. CARE states that area rugs smaller than 11 by 15 feet, meaning 165 square feet, are not covered by the California program and are not accepted. That excludes essentially every household rug, since 5 by 7, 8 by 10, and 9 by 12 are all under the threshold. For rugs the real options are donation, resale, or the trash. Clean, odor-free rugs are accepted by thrift stores and Buy Nothing groups, and wool or hand-knotted rugs are worth washing and repairing because they hold genuine resale value. Synthetic rugs with rubber or latex backing have no recycling outlet at all.
Why is the carpet recycling rate so low if there is a program?
Fiber economics. Nylon carries the whole system, and nylon 6 can be depolymerized back to its raw material and respun into new fiber. Polypropylene is worth too little to support recycling on its own. Polyester is the real problem: CARE reports very few outlets for recycled carpet PET and describes it as a major negative cost factor for collectors, and PET is now the most common residential carpet fiber. California's compliance record shows how hard the targets are. CalRecycle has found CARE's annual report noncompliant in every year it has ruled on since 2013, including 2023 and 2024, and penalties have exceeded $1 million. The rate itself has improved, reaching a record 38.5 percent in 2024 against a 34 percent goal, with a 45 percent target for 2027.
Should I donate a rug or try to recycle it?
Donate or sell it. Reuse outlets exist everywhere and carpet recycling mostly does not, so a clean rug is far more likely to find a second home than a second life as material. Wool, antique, and handmade rugs hold value even when worn and are worth having cleaned or repaired first. Rugs with stains, odor, mold, or pet contamination will be refused and belong in bulky waste.
What about a high-value antique or Persian rug?
Get it appraised and sell it through a rug dealer, consignment shop, or auction house rather than dropping it at a thrift store. Damaged handmade rugs are often still worth restoring, and specialist cleaners and repairers exist for exactly this. This is the one part of the category where the item can be worth more than it cost.
What do I do with the carpet padding?
Pad is frequently more recyclable than the carpet above it. Bonded rebond cushion is made from 100 percent recycled foam and the Carpet Cushion Council has put it at over 85 percent of US cushion production, so there is a genuine market for clean take-up pad. The collection route runs through installers rather than consumer drop-offs, so ask yours whether they recover it. Pad has to be dry and free of tack strip and staples.
Should I worry about PFAS in my carpet?
Less than you might expect for anything bought recently. California listed carpets and rugs containing PFAS as a Priority Product in 2021, and its toxics department reported in October 2024 that this drove industry-wide abandonment of the chemistry, with no manufacturer notifying continued use and testing showing widespread compliance. New York's law bars PFAS-treated carpet from sale after December 31, 2026. Carpet installed before roughly 2021 may still carry PFAS stain treatment, which is a reason it comes up in recycling discussions rather than a reason to keep it out of a program.
Recycling centers that accept Carpets & Rugs
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