A method of manufacturing carpet filament comprising the steps of: grinding a plurality of recycled PET bottles into a group of polymer flakes; washing said group of polymer flakes to remove at least a portion of one or more contaminants from a surface of said flakes, said group of flakes comprising a first plurality of flakes that consist essentially of PET and a second plurality of flakes that do not consist essentially of PET; after said step of washing said group of polymer flakes: (i) scanning said washed group of flakes to identify said second plurality of flakes, (ii) separating said second plurality of flakes from said first plurality of flakes; providing an expanded surface area extruder having an extruder inlet and an extruder outlet; providing a pressure regulation system configured to reduce a pressure within said expanded surface area extruder between about 0 mbar and about 5 mbar; providing a spinning machine having a spinning machine inlet, wherein said spinning machine inlet is directly coupled to said extruder outlet; using said pressure regulation system to reduce said pressure within said expanded surface area extruder between about 0 mbar and about 5 mbar; while maintaining said pressure within said expanded surface area extruder between about 0 mbar about 5 mbar, passing said second plurality of flakes through said expanded surface area extruder via said first inlet; melting said second plurality of flakes using said expanded surface area extruder to produce a polymer melt; and substantially immediately after passing said second plurality of flakes through said expanded surface area extruder, spinning said polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament using said spinning machine characterized in that said method further comprises: providing a PET crystallizer, wherein the PET crystallizer comprises one or more heating elements and one or more blowers configured to blow air that has been heated by the one or more heating elements over the second plurality of flakes as the second plurality of flakes pass through the crystallizer; and prior to passing said second plurality of flakes through said expanded surface area extruder, passing said second plurality of flakes through said PET crystallizer to at least partially dry a surface of said second plurality of flakes, wherein the one or more blowers are moving air substantially across a surface area of the second plurality of flakes as the second plurality of flakes passes through the crystallizer. grinding a plurality of recycled PET bottles into a group of polymer flakes; washing said group of polymer flakes to remove at least a portion of one or more contaminants from a surface of said flakes, said group of flakes comprising a first plurality of flakes that consist essentially of PET and a second plurality of flakes that do not consist essentially of PET; after said step of washing said group of polymer flakes: (i) scanning said washed group of flakes to identify said second plurality of flakes, (ii) separating said second plurality of flakes from said first plurality of flakes; (i) scanning said washed group of flakes to identify said second plurality of flakes, (ii) separating said second plurality of flakes from said first plurality of flakes; providing an expanded surface area extruder having an extruder inlet and an extruder outlet; providing a pressure regulation system configured to reduce a pressure within said expanded surface area extruder between about 0 mbar and about 5 mbar; providing a spinning machine having a spinning machine inlet, wherein said spinning machine inlet is directly coupled to said extruder outlet; using said pressure regulation system to reduce said pressure within said expanded surface area extruder between about 0 mbar and about 5 mbar; while maintaining said pressure within said expanded surface area extruder between about 0 mbar about 5 mbar, passing said second plurality of flakes through said expanded surface area extruder via said first inlet; melting said second plurality of flakes using said expanded surface area extruder to produce a polymer melt; and substantially immediately after passing said second plurality of flakes through said expanded surface area extruder, spinning said polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament using said spinning machine providing a PET crystallizer, wherein the PET crystallizer comprises one or more heating elements and one or more blowers configured to blow air that has been heated by the one or more heating elements over the second plurality of flakes as the second plurality of flakes pass through the crystallizer; and prior to passing said second plurality of flakes through said expanded surface area extruder, passing said second plurality of flakes through said PET crystallizer to at least partially dry a surface of said second plurality of flakes, wherein the one or more blowers are moving air substantially across a surface area of the second plurality of flakes as the second plurality of flakes passes through the crystallizer.