Flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) is found in nearly all upholstered furniture and mattresses, in car seats, and in carpet cushion. At the end of life, some of these mattresses, carpet cushions, and articles of furniture are recycled and reused in new products, mainly carpet pads. While in many cases, the recycling of wastes into new products is a welcome practice, manufacturers have long added toxic flame retardants to polyurethane foam, which is then incorporated into carpet pads. Building occupants, particularly crawling children, can be exposed to flame retardants released from carpet pad. This blog, and accompanying white paper, delve deeper into this issue. Our white paper concludes that “Because of contamination of the main component of the post-consumer FPF feedstock (bonded carpet cushion) with toxic flame retardants, use of these materials in building applications is not recommended unless it can be verified that flame retardant content in the end product is less than 0.01% (100 ppm) by weight, and that workers are protected from exposure to flame retardants.”