Sustainability - Nationwide Foam Recycling
Waste generated from commercial re-roofing projects account for up to 20% of the entire construction and demolition waste stream in the US. With over 3 billion sf of commercial re-roofing completed each year, that's a lot of waste headed to landfills.
Alternatively, reuse and recycling will conserve these resources, minimize landfill needs and reduce global warming impacts.
Recycling the insulation and membrane from a typical 200,000 sf re-roofing project will avoid 100,000 lbs. of waste and 41 tons of CO2 from being released (manufacturing & disposal)
Carbon emissions are created at each step in the lifecycle of most products starting with raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation and end of life management. The “embodied carbon” of a product is used as a measure of it impact.
The reuse of rigid foam insulation and roofing membranes avoids another round of carbon emissions that would otherwise occur if new products were used.
Learn More: “Rigid foam insulation gets a climate chemistry upgrade” Craig Bettenhausen May 25, 2021, ACS, Chemical & Engineering News https://cen.acs.org/environment/greenhouse-gases/Rigid-foam-insulation-climate-chemistry/99/i20