California Signs AB 904 Carpet Recycling Bill into Law

Sacramento, CA, September 29, 2026—California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 904 into law on September 27, 2026. This bill will impact flooring manufacturers, retailers, distributors and consumers in the state. This update will speak to new requirements and remind participants of relevant existing law.

Among the law’s changes:

• Product disclosure—Replaces the environmental product declaration requirement with online disclosure of components constituting more than 1% of product weight and intentionally added DTSC Candidate Chemicals, subject to trade-secret protection.
• Mandatory recycling—No later than January 1, 2029, all carpet removed from a residence or business shall be transported to a collection site. Covered material collected at a collection site shall be transported to a recycling facility designated by the producer responsibility organization.
• Free drop-off—The Producer Responsibility Organization shall provide the ability for people to drop off post-consumer carpet, free of charge, at authorized collection sites that are open according to a prescribed schedule.
• Backstamping—The deadline for carpet backstamping on all carpet sold in the state will be delayed until six months after new regulations are issued—currently estimated July 2028.
• Convention Carpet Reuse—Convention carpet is already covered under the existing law. Under AB 904. no less than 20% must be reused by 2028.
• PCC Content—Carpet shall contain 5% of post-consumer recycled carpet content by 2028. CalRecycle may, for the year 2029 and any year thereafter, set the rate for post-consumer recycled carpet to be required in carpet. (This is already current law, so no change.)
• Union grants—The union apprentice programs is funded at $2 million per year.
• Rugs—Rugs are now excluded from the carpet law. Manufacturers are advised that rugs will be covered under the separate textiles bill AB 707 and should monitor that program for timing requirements.
• Governing board—Establishes a 14-member voting board.

The above is not a complete summary. Interested parties should familiarize themselves with the bill’s contents. The bill can be read here.