Contractors and distributors drive shingle recycling forward

By The Coffee Shops®. 

Industry leaders will gather in Raleigh to discuss practical solutions for recovering roofing waste and expanding asphalt shingle recycling. 

Roofing contractors and distributors are on the front line of shingle recovery, making their perspectives critical to the future of recycling. On October 14, the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) is hosting its 11th Shingle Recycling Forum, bringing industry leaders, contractors and recyclers together in Raleigh, North Carolina, to discuss roofing waste, environmental impact and opportunities to grow the recycling business. 

Dan Horton of ASR Systems shared that the forum is celebrating its 22nd anniversary. The event will focus on reducing roofing’s carbon footprint while advancing the technology needed to extract and process recyclable materials more effectively and affordably. “There’s fifteen to eighteen million tons of roofing waste being thrown away at landfills. Twenty percent of the material being thrown away is asphalt, a commodity that is very valuable,” Dan said. 

The scale of that waste creates both an industry challenge and an opportunity. Asphalt roofing materials contain aggregates that can be recovered and reused rather than sent to already crowded landfills. Forum participants will explore how improved recycling processes can help make those materials more accessible and usable. 

Karen Edwards will moderate a panel featuring roofing contractors and distributors. The discussion will give these stakeholders an opportunity to explain the realities they face and identify what they need to make shingle recycling easier and more efficient. 

Bringing contractors, distributors, recyclers and technology leaders into the same conversation is an important step toward developing workable solutions. Their experience can help the industry understand the operational barriers to recovery and what it will take to scale recycling programs. 

Registration for the Shingle Recycling Forum is open through the event website and the Construction and Demolition Recycling Association at cdrecycling.org. 

Learn more about the Shingle Recycling Forum and how roofing professionals are working together to advance sustainable recycling practices.