Review: Recycling of nylon from carpet waste

Large amounts of post-consumer carpet are discarded every year. Most of thi s waste is currently landfilled, while a small percentage is incinerated. T he face carpet fibers, consisting primarily of nylon 6 and nylon 6,6, repre sent the majority component in the carpet waste. Recent financial incentive s and environmental constraints have motivated the industrial sector to dev elop recycling strategies for these fibers. Depolymerization into their con stituent monomers is the most complex recycling route, but at the same time it produces the most valuable product. A second alternative involves the u se of solvents for the extraction of carpet fiber components in their polym eric form. Finally, a third recycling option yields thermoplastic mixtures by melt blending the carpet waste. The recent literature on the recycling o f nylon from carpet waste is reviewed in this paper. The paper also include s a section focusing on the current state of carpet recycling at the indust rial level.