Letters

Praise for recycling

I commend Elizabeth Hart, executive director of Green Roof info Think-tank, Portland, Ore., for writing "A recycling resurgence," which appeared in Professional Roofing's November 2017 issue. She is to be commended for her holistic treatment of the subject from the installation of long-lasting products, through maintaining them to maximize service lives and then recycling them when they no longer can perform adequately. It is an approach we fully support and have been promoting for decades.

Among the examples she highlights of how products and, specifically, PVC roof membranes can be recycled, she fails to mention what we believe to be the best, most comprehensive roof membrane recycling program: recycling pre-consumer and post-consumer PVC roofing sheets into new membranes. The new products containing recycled material then provide decades of performance in the field before they, too, will be recycled into new membranes, starting the cycle all over again.

Our first end-of-service-life recycling project occurred in 2005. The program has been featured in numerous symposium proceedings and trade journal articles, including "PVC recycling is now a reality" in Professional Roofing's December 2007 issue.

The recycling program also has been recognized by a number of organizations, such as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and Society of Plastics Engineers. And it is a key element of Target Corp.'s zero roofing waste program mentioned in Hart's article. Most important, the end-of-service-life recycling program has been highly effective and successful. About 60 million pounds of pre- and post-consumer PVC roof membrane material have been diverted from landfills and processed into hundreds of millions of square feet of new roof membranes that have been installed throughout North America where they will protect thousands of buildings well into the future.

Recycling is a key element in most sustainability strategies. We believe it is important for all stakeholders to be made fully aware of all options available to them. Our efforts are an important complement to Hart's article, and I encourage you to share it with Professional Roofing's readers.

S.P. Graveline
Sika Corp.—Roofing
Canton, Mass.