Jason Haus of Dem-Con Cos. LLC, Shakopee, Minn. , said an end market exists for scrap roofing shingles, provided state transportation agencies could not send a green light signal to hot-mix asphalt (HMA) plant operators.

At the 2010 C&D World Conference & Exhibition, which was March 28-30 at the Rio Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Haus outlined how his company went about cooperating with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and HMA plant operators to change his company’s asphalt shingle diversion rate from 3 percent to 75 percent in just four years.

Haus, who noted there are some 11 million tons of scrap asphalt shingles generated annually, says insight he gained from meeting with HMA plant operator’s convinced him the creation of a permissive spec recycled asphalt shingle (RAS) spec from MnDOT would be a key to gaining acceptance for his product.

In the four-year span from initial meetings to the creation of the spec, Dem-Con also researched and invested in processing methods and conducted numerous tests to assure customers that the presence of asbestos was a rarity and occurred at extremely low levels when it was present.

Rich Krock of the Vinyl Institute, Alexandria, VA., remarked that about 76 percent of vinyl consumed goes into building products, such as pipes and fittings, vinyl siding, windows and doors, decking and fencing and flooring.

He said since pipe manufacturers have their own exclusive compound formulas, they often accept only their own products back as scrap. “It’s a little bit of a challenge, “said Krock.  Vinyl siding can baled and shipped and was starting to be used by siding manufacturers as a substrate material, said Krock.  He singled out Cedar Boards vinyl siding made by CertainTeed Corp., Valley Forge, PA., which is made from 60 percent recycled material, as an example of this type of siding, which has a recycled-content substrate.

As published in C&DR May/June 2010