Throwing Away Old Carpet

Donating or selling carpet.

Throwing away old carpet.

Although you can technically throw old carpet away with the rest of your trash doing so can prove to be a bit complicated. Because carpet is usually disposed of in large amounts you can t just leave it at the curb. If you don t have a lot of carpet like the previous suggestion cut it up into small pieces and just mix the carpet padding and tack strips in with your normal trash. Yes nearly all types of carpet can be recycled.

The carpet america recovery effort or care is a non profit organization focusing on keeping. Carpets are full of complex fibers that make them impossible to break down in landfills. And because most old carpet is thrown away in large quantities many trash collectors will not accept it. Cut carpet into easy to handle.

As long as it s clean and. According to the carpet america recovery effort nearly 5 billion pounds of used carpet end up in landfills every year this is not good. Prep before pulling up carpet. Detach carpet from tack strips.

Should you just throw it in the landfill like everyone used to do. If you are unable to haul the carpet off to the dump yourself do a search on the internet or in the yellow pages for waste or trash removal. Before you start ripping up the carpet clear all furniture from the room. Typical carpeting contains all sorts of nasty chemicals like polyvinylchloride pvc and polypropylene which we don t want sitting in landfills for years and possibly contaminating any groundwater.

In addition to its disposal woes carpet s bulkiness burdens the sanitation workers tasked with picking it up. How to remove old carpet 1. The latter will be a lot cheaper. Here are four great ways to keep your old rug out of the dump give it new uses around the house and even bring you some extra cash.

Before dumping your old carpet or rug on the curb try cleaning it up to see if it can be reused. Another option is to sell or donate the old carpet if it s in good usable condition. Carpet is made from a combination of fibers plastics and chemicals that make it hard to break down in landfills. Tack strips are metal nails that line the perimeter of your walls to hold the carpet.