Low Impact

Old carpet - how best to reuse it?

So, we’ve had our sustainably harvested, dust free bamboo flooring laid down…but what to do with the old carpet?  How on earth do you re-use 90 square metres of carpet?

Given that our main aim with our renovations is to have an environmentally friendly and sustainable home, starting off by dumping 90 square metres of carpet into landfill just felt wrong!  A search on the net yielded a few ideas, and asking around gave a few more.

The lion’s share of it went to the local archery club.  Yup, archery – the very first thing you think of when you think of carpet recycling!   When I was young, I recall archery targets were specially constructed, made of slim “bales” of compressed straw.  Nowadays, I understand, targets are constructed from boxes that are filled with multiple layers of carpet.  The carpet layers are stiff enough to absorb the impact of the arrows, but soft enough so as not to damage them.

A few rolls of the carpet in better condition was kept for use around the house.  In particular:

• I have a filing cabinet for my bills and paperwork that is just crying out to leave big scratch marks on the new bamboo flooring.  Cutting a small square of carpet to fit underneath it should solve this problem, and will be concealed by the filing cabinet itself.

• We’ve been discussing the possibility of getting a cat, although that decision is still a little way off.  If it does happen, nailing carpet around some pieces of scrap timber will provide a great scratching post, and save the $50 cost of buying one from a pet store.

• There are a few places around the house, especially while we’re setting up, where we could really do with some foot mats to wipe the dirt of our shoes.  Rather than buy brand new foot mats, we can make use of squares of carpets.

Of course, many of these uses are quite severe examples of “down-cycling” – the carpet is stepping down in its usefulness and when it has finished being used in this new fashion , it will be even harder to recycle.  Eventually it will end up in landfill.  Most recycling is like this to more or less of a degree; this is why it’s far better not to consume something in the first place.  As the famous slogan goes:

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.  In that order!

Depending on where you live, and what sort of carpet your are getting rid of, you may have other options.  In the US, there appears to be quite a mature carpet recycling program that could be worth investigating.

If your carpet is 100% wool, a host of garden uses become available – covering your compost for added warmth, smothering weeds, and a base for sheet mulching.  Being an organic substance, it will break down naturally over time, and assuming no sprays or other treatments were applied to the wool, it won’t add any nasties to your soil.

If you’ve got any bright ideas for reusing carpet, feel free to share them in the comments below.  Also, has anyone come across ways to reuse the blue foam underlay that lies underneath the carpet?  I have to admit defeat on that one so far.  Ideas welcome!

Categories: DIY, environment, green, recycle

Tags: carpet, flooring, recycle