The Deeper Importance of Shingle Recycling

It's weird to think that something as mundane at roofing shingles can be the newest member to the whole green movement of recycling and reuse, but alas, here we are. That's right folks, you can now add shingle recycling to the list of ways that you can help save the world. If you think about it makes sense that someone came up with a way to recycle shingles. Heck, you can recycle just about anything now-a-days. The truly amazing thing to me is not that it can be recycled, but that someone actually came up with the idea of making a money-making enterprise off of it. In a strange way, I find it almost inspiring that someone took a look a shingles and went "Hey, there has to be a way to make money off of all those used ones."

Let me clarify something though: we aren't talking about just reusing the old shingles, we are talking about grinding them up and then reforming them into a useable mulch. Think of it as making brand new shingles and other materials out of old shingle mulch, kind of like what happens with wood in particle board. Besides the fact that you're being green by reusing old material, one of the best things about shingle recycling is that it clears up some much needed room in the landfills, which is always good news considering how much of our land has been dedicated to our trash in the last century.

It seems like, as a society, we have become blind to the idea that landfills still exist. What used to be places that were in public view where we would drop off our own garbage has now become a place where we can't even find with the help of a map. Do you have any idea where a landfill is around you? Frankly I have no clue, which is sad considering that my trash will be there for years to come. That is why the idea of recycling is so important. Not so much because of the green movement, or because of how trendy it has become, but because the concept of the landfill has become so unnecessary now that we have the technology to reuse almost everything that buy or consume.

That's what is so amazing about stuff like shingle recycling: we've now gotten to the point where we can literally recycle everything. As long as people can make money they will find new ways to recycle old products, which, if you about, is something that everyone can get behind: capitalism and the environment.

About the Author

Author Kim Green hopes people adopt the practice of shingle recycling to help preserve natural resources.

Author (catwomanseven). Submitted on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 Time: 5:55 PM

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