The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), an industry-led effort to reduce the flow of waste carpet to landfills in the United States, has announced its first grant cycle.

CARE will be accepting grant proposals for programs which provide for the recycling and/or reuse of post-consumer carpet, or increase the demand for products made from post-consumer carpet.

Individual grants up to $50,000 will be available to private sector applicants in each of three categories: Intermediate Processing and End-Use, Enhancement of the Collection Infrastructure, and Research and Development of Markets.

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria: Waste Stream Impact, Probability of Program Success, Planning/Cost Effectiveness, Need, Technology Transfer (i.e. dissemination of information regarding project methodology and results), and Sourcing and Markets (i.e. source of waste carpet and destination markets).

The formal request for proposals (RFP) process will begin February 1, 2003. Check the CARE website at www.carpetrecovery.org on Feb. 4 to download the RFP materials. Closing date is March 14, 2003.

Grant awards will be announced at CARE's first annual meeting on April 24-25, in San Destin, Fla.

For more informationm visit the website at www.carpetrecovery.org.