Roofing Recycling Programs

All roofing systems will eventually reach the end of their service life and replacement will be necessary. For some single-ply roofs, this can be as simple as a recover, where the contractor leaves the existing single-ply roof in place and installs another single-ply over top of it. This method involves very little removal of material, but it can only be done once. After that, the roof must be completely replaced. A roof replacement with a complete tear-off involves removing the single-ply membrane, cover boards, and insulation boards, all the way down to the roof deck. And for most roof replacements, a lot of that material will be headed directly to a landfill.

However, there is another solution for mechanically fastened and ballasted single-ply membranes. These types of membranes have very little residual adhesive (which often can't be recycled), since their main attachment method is either mechanical fasteners or stone/paver ballast.

For years, Carlisle SynTec Systems has relied on Nationwide Foam Recycling to recycle many of the materials that would have previously ended up in a landfill, such as mechanically fastened/ballasted membranes (EPDM, TPO, and PVC), concrete pavers, and rigid foam insulation boards (Polyiso, XPS, and EPS).

How does it work? Simple, the contractor schedules a pick-up and provides trailers for the contractor to load with pallets of membrane and insulation. Nationwide Foam Recycling will send that material to their facilities for processing and issue the contractor a certificate after verifying the weight of membrane (in pounds) and/or volume of foam board insulation (cubic yards).

This kind of waste diversion is great for the environment and for the roofing contractor because many of the products are cheaper to recycle than to send to a landfill. Specifying products with greater recycled content has been standard in many specifications for years. Specifying roof recycling on your next re-roofing project should also be considered as a specification standard as well.

For further reading, check out these Recycling Case Studies.

You can find more information about which products Carlisle is recycling in the Carlisle Recycling Reference Guide.

If you have any questions, contact Craig Tyler.

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