All construction carries with it an environmental cost and roofing is no exception. The environmental impact of remove and replace, however, is considerable enough that it should be taken into consideration when choosing a roofing solution.
Building owners removing and replacing their current roofs have the option of recycling their old roofs. Of course, this mainly applies to metal roofs (we’ll talk about shingles in a bit).
While recyclable, metal roofs need to be removed and transported to a recycling center. These additional labor and transportation costs are not insignificant.
Replacing a shingle roof is even worse for the environment because shingles often aren’t recycled. In fact, every year 11 tons of shingles are removed and need to be disposed of. Those shingles end up in landfills, many of which charge high fees to accept and discard them.
And no matter the type of roof being removed there is always the debris of insulation and underlayment material that also ends up in landfills.
When a roof is recovered, however, the original roof, insulation, and underlayment are all saved from landfills and costly disposal.
Want to learn more about the costs associated with different roofing options? Check out our new eBook, Need a New Roof? How Building Owners Reduce Costs with a Metal Roof to learn more about both recover and remove and replace roofing solutions.