Oakland Airport Recycles 15,000 Pounds of Material for Flooring Project

Oakland International Airport has installed recycled carpeting in Terminal 1 as a component of its environmentally sustainable facility improvement project.

The flooring replacement was completed for the benefit of passenger experience at the airport. The project also aligned with the environmental and sustainability goals of the Port of Oakland. The Port worked with a California-based materials processing provider to efficiently recycle over 15,000 pounds of material (post-consumer commercial carpet tile) from the previous flooring treatment. 

“Our Terminal 1 Carpeting Replacement Project is an example of the work we are doing to maintain facilities and improve passenger experience at OAK,” says Craig Simon, Interim Director of Aviation at the Port of Oakland. “The re-use of materials represents the effort that the Port of Oakland is making to be cleaner and greener in its processes. The airport will continue to seek out environmentally sustainable options in the additional terminal improvements coming soon.” 

As a result of this project, approximately 15,000 pounds of flooring material were recycled (95 percent of total waste materials from project). The materials collected in OAK’s carpeting replacement project will be utilized in various applications including automotive, packaging, composite decking, and injection molding. The waste materials processor on this project was Circular Polymers by Ascend, located in Lincoln, California. Circular Polymers is a leader in carpet recycling and is certified as a Tier 1 processor by the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE). 

Regarding the new replacement flooring in Terminal 1, approximately 41 percent was made from recycled materials. The prime contractor on this project was A1 Modular, and Hoem and Associates did the flooring installation work. The project’s budget totaled just over $500,000 and overnight work was completed across a nine-day period.