Recycle Shingles?

What do you do with old shingles? If you, like me, think the only thing you can do with them is throw them away then you'd be wrong.  I didn't know it till today but it is actually possible to recycle your old shingles.  


Once we finished roofing the chicken coop last night, I had a small pile of shingle scraps left over.  I really didn't want to just throw them away but I really didn't know what else to do with them.  So I did what I always do when I need an answer...I ask Dr. G (Google search)


It turns out that it's possible to turn roof shingles into roads...and that's exactlly what they are doing in Missouri with their ROOFS TO ROADS program.

More than 276 million pounds of roofing shingles are dumped into Missouri landfills every year. That’s enough shingles to completely cover St. Louis City and St. Louis County.

(picture from here)

So if you're like me, you're thinking..."Good stinkin' but what can I do where I live?"

Unfortunately I don't know.  I'm going to start by calling several of the companies around town that build/repair roads and I think I will also call the roofing companies and see how/if they recycle their shingles.  If you have a shingle recycling program in your area, how does it work?