Saw a stat about carpet waste that really got me thinking

I was reading an old trade magazine at the supply house (the one from 2019, I think) and it said about 4 million tons of old carpet get thrown out every year in the US. That number just stuck in my head, it's a lot of material. It made me wonder if we could be doing more to cut down scraps on our jobs. Do you guys have any good tricks for using up smaller leftover pieces?

2 comments

2 Comments

singh.jessica23d ago

Heard about a contractor friend who started using all his small carpet scraps as padding under area rugs. It saved him a ton on buying new underlayment and kept those pieces out of the dumpster. Pretty clever way to solve two problems at once.

logansingh23d ago

That "kept those pieces out of the dumpster" part is so true. My buddy who does tile work had a similar lightbulb moment. He started saving all his broken ceramic and porcelain pieces, crushing them up to use as drainage gravel in the bottom of potted plants for his wife's garden. She gets free materials, and his job site waste bin isn't full of sharp shards anymore. It's wild how much useful stuff gets thrown away without a second thought. What's the best reuse hack you've seen come from a job site?