[Orlando, Fla.] Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), the non-profit organization charged with advancing market-based solutions for carpet recycling and landfill diversion, has named its Person of the Year and Recycler of the Year for 2017. The two honors were awarded during the organization's 16th annual conference, held here on May 9, 2018.
Person of the Year
Mike Tinney, CARE's 2017 Person of the Year, works as a consultant for CARE in California. CARE explained that Mike has a wealth of experience in market development for recycled materials, and added that he's been instrumental assisting CARE in developing products that utilize post-consumer carpet for the last four years.
Tinney also provided consulting services to the California Energy Commission, the California Lighting Technology Center at UC Davis and the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Mike has also worked closely with CalRecycle for 6 years, developing a business assistance program that focuses on tire-derived products.
"Mike has earned a solid reputation fighting for the small business owner. He has brought his experience in the tire recycling world and applied it to find new product opportunities and markets," CARE executive director Dr. Robert Peoples said. "A pragmatic, hard-nosed champion, Mike has had a real impact on creating new ways to recycle old carpet."
Recycler of the Year
CarpetCycle has been named CARE's 2017 Recycler of the Year. Lead by CARE board member Sean Ragiel, the New Jersey-based company began recycling carpet in 2009. Since its inception, CarpetCycle has diverted more than 200 million pounds of carpet from U.S. landfills. The company services the Eastern United States from Washington D.C. to Maine.
In 2017, CarpetCycle introduced Quiet Tech, a product made with post-consumer carpet. Quiet-Tech is a recycled acoustic insulation product that is made up of 85-90 percent recycled materials.
"CarpetCycle is one of the longest running recyclers of post-consumer carpet and other materials. I give Sean Ragiel a lot of credit for building a resilient and diversified business model. His latest innovation is Quiet Tech, a DoubleGreen insulation product, using two different post-consumer materials," said Peoples.