An Iowa company is launching a program to recycle old carpeting collected from a half-dozen cities statewide. The Department of Natural Resources is loaning 60-thousand dollars to S-S-C Corporation of Urbandale to launch the project. In a few weeks, company subcontractors will start tearing up and carting away old carpet when putting down new. The carpet will be taken to Georgia where it’ll be recycled into new carpet, soundproofing, auto parts and other products.D-N-R spokesman Bob Castelline says 40-thousand tons of carpet is now dumped into Iowa landfills every year and very little used Iowa carpet is currently recycled. Castelline says Iowans won’t have to pay extra to have their old carpet taken away for recycling, as that fee is already figured into the cost of new carpet.S-S-C has 13 retail outlets under the name Flooring Gallery in Ames, Des Moines, Marshalltown, Mason City, Sioux City and Waterloo. The new project is called SWAP, the Solid Waste Alternatives Program.
