“I grew up in the generation where we were big on keeping everything clean,” says Walker, a graduate of Henrico High School and a fifth-generation Richmonder. “I often asked myself, ‘why do we have to throw everything in a dump?’”
Even back then, Walker understood the importance of recycling. He and his friends would go pick up bottles in ditches and turn them in for two cents each. They also visited construction sites and gathered discarded material to build things like go-carts.
Now that Walker is president of Walker’s Carpets & Interiors, his recycling efforts have evolved. He entered the flooring industry as a salesman for several carpet companies before opening his own shop in 1984. However, along the way, something always bothered him.
“When we did a job, the old carpets went to landfills,” Walker says. “That was the one thing that didn’t sit well. I really didn’t like that one aspect of our industry.”
Every year, around five billion pounds of carpet is dumped at landfills. Besides that disgusting statistic, there’s another problem.
“Most carpets are nonbiodegradable,” says Fred Williamson, director of special projects for the StarNet Commercial Flooring Cooperative, which has 161 members and 260 service locations in North America. “If you dig it up 100 years from now, it will just be dirty carpet.” Williamson added that five billion pounds is enough to carpet a four-lane highway around the world.
Walker, 56, says a few carpet manufacturers convened 10 to 12 years ago to discuss the problem. But there was a lot of talk and not much action. Most carpet manufacturers are based in Georgia, so when Walker recently heard about a reclamation plant operated by Collins and Aikman Corp. in the Peach State, he and his sales team took a trip.
He witnessed the company taking leftover and discarded carpet from manufacturing plants as well as from consumers and turning it into 100 percent recycled backing for new floor coverings.
“It got me really excited,” says Walker, who is a member of StarNet. “I wanted to know how I could get involved.”
Walker returned to Richmond and set up a reclamation trailer outside his business. His first project was with Henrico County’s Dumbarton Library. He’s also collected used carpeting from Fairfield Library, the Virginia Department of Corrections and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Gladding Hall to name a few.
It was in early October when the first trailer traveled to Collins and Aikman’s reclamation plant. Each trailer holds about 40,000 pounds. Overall, Walker has probably saved several hundred thousand pounds from landfills.
And that kind of initiative is why Williamson is optimistic about the future. StarNet and the nonprofit Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) kept 225 million pounds from landfills in 2005. The forecast is better for 2006. The organizations predict more than 400 million pounds were diverted. Besides backing, manufacturers turned the recycled product into an energy source, plastic piping and railroad ties.
“With a concentrated effort and good members like Kent Walker, we as an industry can make a difference,” Williamson says. “Our goal is to reduce that five billion by 40 percent by 2012.”
Walker was named the area’s collector by carpet manufacturers and says he’s offered this service to local competitors. But he’s had very little positive response because of the additional cost, which is slightly higher than dumping used carpeting in a landfill. The cost difference is between 75 cents and $1.25 per square yard. But neglecting the environment is much more expensive, Walker says.
“The key is to have counties, private businesses, architects, interior designers and others to require in the project specifications that existing carpet be recycled and have certification that this material is being recycled,” Walker says. “That will get other carpet companies involved as well.”
Walker presented Henrico County with a StarNet/CARE Reclamation Certificate to recognize its participation in the program. The certification hangs in the office of Fred Drake, buildings and grounds manager for Henrico County.
“Henrico County recycles much of its waste,” says Drake, who participated in the efforts to save 20,800 pounds of used carpeting from Dumbarton and Fairfield libraries. “I would like to see us include a statement in the bid documents to encourage recycling of used carpets. I think it’s good any time we can reduce what is going into landfills. It extends the life of landfill, it’s good for the environment and good for our planet.”
There’s no profit from recycling right now. But Walker says that he feels better about himself and the industry. Much better than when he first started nearly three decades ago. “We all want to live in a greener community,” Walker says. “I’m just doing my part.”
For information, visit www.walkerscarpets.com.
