Frank Endrenyi has been involved with the carpet
industry since 1974 and comes to CARE with a wealth of experience. Among his many
career accomplishments, including the development of three patents, Frank served
as the Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of Product Development and Vice
President of Sustainable Development during his distinguished career at Mohawk
Industries. As the VP of Sustainable Development Frank was responsible for the
development of Mohawk’s signature
GreenWorksTM program.
Frank first brought his expertise in
reducing, reusing, recycling and renewing to CARE all the way back at the beginning in 2002. From CARE’s formative
year up until 2009, Frank served on the board as an industry representative,
playing an integral role in the organization’s growth and development.
In December of 2009 Frank left Mohawk Industries
and his board position at CARE to form his own company, Sustainable Materials
Solutions. Frank was not away from CARE for long however. In early 2010 he returned
to the board as an independent entrepreneurial advisor and chairman of CARE’s PET Opportunities
sub-team.
The PET opportunities sub-team was
formed in response to the growing portion of PET fiber that constitutes the
post-consumer carpet stream. As the team delved into market research it became evident that finding viable outlets for
PET required significantly more time than they could volunteer. Accordingly, in
June of this year the CARE Board issued a request for proposal for a PET
project leader.
Frank began his one-year contract in mid-July and he
is very excited about his new opportunity. Through the course of Frank’s
impressive career he has been very successful in helping companies find and
develop recycling technologies for Nylon 6 and 6,6 fibers, and, as he pointed
out in a recent conversation, “the skills I developed while working with Nylon
are directly applicable to what now needs to happen for PET.”
However, unlike his work with Nylon, Frank is well
aware that PET does not have the benefit of a ready-made market. That is, once post
consumer carpet recyclers figured out how to purify post-consumer Nylon 6 and
Nylon 6,6 fibers, the fibers already had various outlets in the plastics
industry including appliances, automotive parts, etc. The absence of these existing markets for processed
PET carpet fiber is what Frank called his “biggest hurdle and challenge”;
basically, unlike Nylon, the cost of virgin PET is much lower; and that,
coupled with lack of abundant present end use markets, makes PET carpet
recycling a challenge.
This value hurdle is an increasingly important one
to clear. In 2012 PET fiber made up 25% of the post-consumer carpet stream and
Frank expects it to grow up to 45% in the next five years. Fortunately, Frank’s
entrepreneurial personality sees only opportunity. Frank describes his strategy
for the next year as a three-prong approach.
First, Frank plans to generate a list of all the
possible technologies that could be used to recycle PET fiber into various
purities; essentially making a database that identifies processes, costs and
outputs.
Second, he aims to match outputs with potential end
users. That is, not all outlets of post-consumer PET fiber will require PET of
the utmost purity. For the economics to work, Frank sees the process of matching
the physical properties of various purities to the price and quality needs of
various products as essential.
Third, after identifying the right end use products
to match varying process technologies’ outputs, he must work with companies to
develop these markets. Frank will focus his energy wherever the conditions are
ripe. Once local markets are established the key will be to expand developments
across the nation.
CARE also recently initiated a new non-nylon
incentive for users of fiber output derived from California post-consumer
carpet. While program details are still being finalized, CARE believes this is
yet another catalyst to aid Frank in his important work.
Overall Frank is very optimistic about the future
of PET and sees his previous experience with Nylon as directly applicable to
the task at hand; “My ultimate goal is to identify and develop a variety of high
value PET markets that can take millions and millions of pounds per year.”
CARE is as excited as Mr. Endrenyi and looks
forward to reporting advances in the coming year!
CARE's recruitment of Frank Endrenyi as PET project leader is certainly a excellent beginning, and a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThe growth of this fiber in this decade will exceed over 50% of the post-consumer carpet waste stream.
Culturally, our country will have to decide if converting waste to energy recovery is a bridge; as in the UK, until we have developed a viable reclamation of this fiber.
As was referenced in CARE's Entrepreneurial meeting recently in Atlanta, GA, the reclamation of PET into carpet fiber pad is a real opportunity. Currently PET fiber pad only accounts for 4.5% padding.
Reclaiming PET into composite decking board is another viable option. One company, Fiberon is reviewing a plant to produce this product. Raw material requirement is 100 millions pounds annually, to supply this plant, and could start up a plant by 2015.
Frank Endrenyi reviewed 27 different project ideas associated with PET that are being worked on around the U.S. at the Entrepreneurial meeting.