As someone who has been in the junk removal for a short amount of time, I have come to realize a couple of things about the waste industry. For one thing the I would describe it more as the “wasteful” industry. The amount of trash i see going into the landfill is astounding, I never used to pay attention to it but as my buisness grew nd I started dumping more and more trash I no longer felt like a small part of the problem with no control over the situation, I have control over hundreds of tons of trash a year and can control how much gets recycled or disposed of.
Asphalt Shingles
Working in the roofing industry taught me a lot about shingles and how they are put on, torn off, and how fast they deteriorate.
Did you know over 13million tonnes of shingles are dumped into landfills each year. over 80% of American houses have asphalt shingles. Some boast incredible wind speed resistance and even 25 to 50 year waranties.
The downside? Over 90% of them end up in landfills.
Why? Well the whole asphalt roofing industry every year creates new shingles and discontinues old ones. If you ever have a missing, or damaged shingle due to wind 10 years down the road, your out of luck even with your warranty. For this reason many people will get new roofs through insurance so they can have matching roofs.
Another reason is asphalt is the cheapest option, and easiest to install. Add onto that the fact that recycled asphalt is hard to even reuse after recycled. It can comprimise structures of roads creating potholes and cracks faster.
How to change this?
Some people are probably feeling a bit down with all this information feeling their is nothing you can do. Their is though. Whenever you get a new roof even with the additional upfront cost it is better to get a metal or tile roof.
What are the pros of a metal, tile, or slate roof over an asphalt roof? Metal, tile, and slate roofs can be infinitley recycled. Even though it might cost more upfront, you will never have to worry about repairs again. Tile roofs and metal roofs can last for a hundred years, you wont have to worry about mismatching repairs either. Even if you do have to repair it, you only have to take the damaged peice off and replace it. EASY!
The In my opinion the whole asphalt roofing industry is uneccessary and only contributes to a wasteful economy rather than a cyclical economy.
Through running Houston Junk Disposal my recycling ambitions have grown strong, I would like to implement GAF’s asphalt tile recycling program in texas and figure out a way to make it profitable so other people do the same. Once I expand into roll-off’s I will also be trying to partner with roofing companies in the local area to try and convince people to install tile, metal or slate roofs and have them be more affordable.
Waste statistics
As Americans, we create an enormous amount of trash. Overall, the U.S. produces 268 million tons of trash annually. The average U.S. resident produces about 4.5 pounds per day, and most of it is comprised of recyclable items.
If you compare the amount of garbage that Americans create to the global average of 1.6 pounds per day, we’re on the high end. To keep up with the increase in curbside pickup volume, landfills have grown in number. Space is quickly filling up, and that rate will increase now that China has banned foreign
