Letters

Comments about recycling roofing materials

Congratulations on the launch of Professional Roofing ECO. The timing for introducing such a publication could not be better, and I am certain it will be a valuable resource for all roofing professionals.

I particularly appreciated James R. Kirby's article, "Join the movement," page 10, about recycling roofing materials. Our parent company was a driving force in developing end-of-service-life recycling of PVC thermoplastic membranes in Europe more than a decade ago. The experience gained there has been beneficial in setting up a successful program in the U.S. We genuinely believe this is a critical issue for the roofing industry.

Kirby rightfully points to the U.S. Green Building Council as a driving force in the construction material recycling movement. However, we believe its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System™ as it currently is written is nowhere near as effective as it could be.

For example, Materials and Resources Credit 4: Recycled Content provides one or two points for achieving building product recycled content of 10 or 20 percent, respectively. A project's overall recycled content is calculated based on the weighted costs of all components and systems in a building. Typically, a roof membrane will account for a small percentage of the total cost of all materials in a given building. In a practical sense, it will have minimal—if any—effect on the project's recycled content regardless of the given membrane's recycled content.

Therefore, from a LEED rating perspective, there really is no incentive for specifiers to seek out and specify membranes incorporating recycled materials. Awarding points based on specific critical building components would be a much stronger driver toward the development, specification and use of higher-recycled-content products.

In addition to the recycling resources noted in the article's sidebar, the Chemical Fabrics and Film Association provides useful information at www.vinylroofs.org about recycling thermoplastic PVC membranes.

S.P. Graveline, vice president of technical services
Sika Sarnafil Inc.
Canton, Mass.

Kirby responds: I thank Graveline for his letter. I agree with his comments about LEED's Green Building Rating System, and I appreciate the additional information he has provided.