In the late 1990s, I knew a guy who was beginning to work with some companies in the Southeast that were starting to recycle carpet. At the time, they were having a difficult time justifying the cost of grinding up the carpet to be used in pad and insulation. I haven’t heard much about carpet recycling since. Now comes this article, claiming that a particular organization has diverted over 1 billion pounds of carpet from landfills. That’s a lot of carpet! Of course, this is all back east where there is a much denser population. But still, I wonder how long it will be before recycling carpet becomes viable here in the Intermountain West.

All-electric cars are coming down the pipe and thus the paradigm will begin to officially shift. The car is still too expensive for many middle and lower income Americans, even when you consider that you don’t have to put any oil or gas into it. It’s still a large upfront cost while the gas and oil are spread out over time. Regardless, I hope they get the approval quickly and begin work right away. Tesla may very well become the the GM (hopefully just in size, not in stupidity) of the new automakers landscape. Considering the current state of GM and Chrysler, if they don’t catch on soon and begin to produce a viable, long-range, all-electric car, they will find it hard to not fade into the sunset of obsolete car companies.

This just doesn’t seem right, especially in this time of financial crisis. Recyclers are already hurting with the depressed prices of recyclables and now some of their money has to go to other private companies administering a federal program? Where’s the stimilus in that?

Have you ever wondered what happens to a junk vehicle when it is no longer of any use? This blog article describes it pretty well and includes a video of a small shredder. A larger shredder will do the same thing in about 1/4 the time.