Shingles are Recyclable

By Cayden Wemple. 

Check out how ARMA is advocating for a more sustainable future in asphalt roofing. 

There’s no way around it, roofing causes a lot of waste and it is up to the industry to find ways to lead the charge in finding sustainable solutions. On a recent episode of Roofing Road Trips with Heidi J. Ellsworth, she visited with Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA) Executive Vice President Reed Hitchcock and Vice President of Technical Aaron Phillips to discuss what their organization is doing to build a more sustainable future in asphalt roofing. 

“Shingle recycling's been around for a long time,” says Reed, “I mean, the industry's said for years, shingles are recyclable. But you're still seeing far too many of them go to landfill.” Last year, ARMA’s board got together to discuss what their goals were to diminish the amount of waste going to the landfills.  

Reed told listeners, “We released a statement as an industry bringing our members together. ‘Industry goals are to reduce landfill disposal of asphalt-based roofing materials to 50% by 2035 and to approach zero by 2050. To accomplish these goals, we'll foster and promote responsible, economically feasible, and sustainable circular economy options to recycle asphalt-based roofing materials and enhance the long-term viability of asphalt roofing as the preferred roofing material.”  

It’s been a tall order to come up with ways to repurpose the asphalt shingles. “How do we repurpose, reuse, capture value from those materials instead of just passively allowing them to go into a landfill?” asks Aaron.  

He continues, “It's interesting to look at all the different ideas. I mean, just as we've advanced and increased our activity in this area, we see so many people interested in asphalt roofing materials as a resource from which they can do other things, break it down biologically, separate the components, grind it up and create a material suitable for a whole variety of end markets.” 

“And so, filling out that whole ecosystem is a significant challenge. And we're starting, we take a step at a time, and every journey starts with a step. We've been on this journey for quite some time, but every day is another step.” Aaron said. 

Listen to the podcast for more information on how ARMA is working to make the asphalt roofing industry more sustainable.  

Learn more about the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA) in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.asphaltroofing.org 

About Cayden  

Cayden is a reporter for RoofersCoffeeShop, MetalCoffeeShop and AskARoofer. When he isn’t writing about roofs, he’s usually playing guitar or writing songs for his musical endeavors.