Did they just bin 50,000 square feet of red carpet after the Oscars?

So the Oscars are over for this year and everyone can go home and prop their newly acquired statue in the downstairs loo, the bedside table or wherever the gold chap looks best.  The barriers are taken down, the streets re-opened and  the carpet rolled up.

Oh the carpet.  During a conversation with somebody about lack of sustainability on the red carpet they mentioned that they had heard that at the end of the event it is just binned.  Well knock me down with a dodo feather.  Surely not?  So I dug down a little and there is no clear answer.

According to the New York Times, as recently as 2017 that the carpet, then provided by Signature Systems Group, was indeed binned after the event.  Reuse, repurpose and recycle has only recently hit the zeitgeist but surely even in 2017 rolling up 50,000 square feet of carpet and shoving out with the bins was a little wasteful?

Fortunately since then things have changed a little (not least the controversial beige carpet in 2023 😉). The carpet, now provided by Event Carpet Pros will apparently be “recycled” Sadly that is the limit of the detail. Which rather begs the question, exactly how will it be recycled? Greenwashing is so common that transparency is vital.

You can find out everything you need to know about carpet (and pretty much everything else you might want to dispose of) from Business Waste.    Once shredded and split into its component parts an old carpet can be used for insulation, sports pitches and even car parts.  All very good until you discover that this is a complex process and only 2% of carpets in the UK are disposed of appropriately.  Perhaps they are better at carpet recycling in California?

So why recycle when you can reuse.  Surely the  Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences isn’t so pushed for cash that it can’t afford a lock up where they can pop the carpet once it’s been cleaned and roll out it again next year?  Do they really need a new carpet every year?  But let’s say that lock up prices have gone through the roof and those pesky stars didn’t check the soles of their feet and there are a few stains here and there.  Fifty thousand square feet of carpet would cover a lot of floors even accounting for the removal of the bits with the dubious stains.

Reuse trumps recycle every time.  How much would you pay to have a bit of the Oscars red carpet in your hallway to welcome you home. I have a lovely wooden bathmat from the 2012 Olympics that makes me feel just a little more athletic every time I stand on it.  Come on Event Carpet Pros tell us what you are doing with that prime piece of red acrylic real estate!