US based Leigh Fibers has established a dedicated business unit to divert discarded carpet and plastic from landfills and turn it into fibres and densified product used by plastics moulders. 

Current and near-term equipment installations will give Leigh Carpet & Plastics Recycling, LLC the capacity to keep more than 100 million pounds a year of used carpet out of landfills, which would increase the volume currently diverted in the United States by about one-third.

“Every ton of carpet we can recycle saves 198 gallons of oil and prevents the emission of two metric tons of greenhouse gases,” said George Martin, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Leigh Fibers.  “Our goal is to reduce the nearly 3.5 million pounds of post-consumer carpet waste that goes into landfills each year, while giving customers the high-quality materials they need to mould new products.”

“Not many U.S. companies have the capability to separate the face fibers from the carpet backing and sort them by type,” said Martin, “and fewer still can turn those fibers into densified product, ready for molders to use.  Leigh Carpet & Plastics Recycling has the equipment and experience to do both.”

The new venture is already reprocessing the most common carpet fibres, Nylon 6, Nylon 6.6, polypropylene, and polyester at a one-million-square-foot facility in South Carolina operated by its parent company.  Leigh Fibers has long been a leading processor of textile waste and fibre by-products, providing standard and custom products to meet demanding specifications in many different markets.

“Reprocessing plastics and carpet is a natural extension for a company that’s been reprocessing textile fibres for much of the last century,” said Martin, “and we expect it to play a significant role in Leigh’s future growth.  We’ve been refining our processes for the past several years and are ready to be a major supplier in this market, as we are in our other markets.”

Leigh Fibers is a global processor of textile waste and fibre by-products, serving the automotive, construction, erosion control, home furnishings, nonwovens, and other industries.  The company says it has has diverted over 12 billion pounds of waste materials from landfills during its 97-year history, and imports and exports materials with more than 25 countries.