Abstract: A method for recovering carpet comprising polymeric fibers. A seller, i.e. retailer, manufacturer or distributor installs a carpet at a consumer location and establishes and maintains a database of installed carpet information comprising carpet type, installation date and consumer identification data. The useful lifetime of the installed carpet is estimated, and the seller contacts the consumer within a determined period of time of the end of the estimated useful lifetime of the carpet. The seller then preferably provides the consumer with an incentive to replace the carpet, such as a credit towards the purchase of a replacement carpet from the seller. The seller then collects the used carpet and sorts the collected carpet according to polymeric fiber type. At least one type of polymeric fiber is converted into a recovered polymer composition, such as by depolymerizing it into its monomeric components and then repolymerizing the monomeric components to form a recovered polymer composition.

Abstract: The present invention provides an inexpensive process which can be placed in the carpet mill to add value to carpet selvage waste by segregating the various materials used to manufacture the selvage waste. The process for segregating at least one component of a carpet selvage waste comprises the steps of:a. providing carpet selvage waste from carpet manufacturing comprised of tufts comprised of face fiber material, primary backing, an adhesive and optionally a secondary backing,b. identifying face fiber type used in the tufts in the carpet selvage,c. removing the face fiber from the carpet selvage such that the face fiber is essentially free of the primary backing and residual adhesive andd. segregating the removed face fiber from the remainder of the carpet selvage in a mechanical system which segregates fiber by fiber type to obtain a relatively pure stream of the face fiber.All removed, segregated components may be recycled and/or reused.