Roofs to Roads

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

Colorado estimates indicate that more than 240,000 tons of asphalt shingles are dumped into the State’s landfills every year, thus increasing both waste and carbon dioxide emissions dramatically. In an innovative effort to use recyclable materials as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Boulder County Transportation Department played a central role in developing and implementing the Roofs to Roads program. The program utilizes asphalt roofing shingles from residential re-roofing (tear-offs) in a 5 percent mix with virgin asphalt binder. Estimates indicate that such a project, if implemented County-wide on all paving projects, would divert more than 5,000 tons of asphalt shingles from landfill disposal, with the potential to avoid the release of more than 27 million pounds of carbon dioxide. Estimates also indicate that the same project, if implemented state-wide, has the potential to reduce the amount of asphalt being land-filled every year by 240,000 tons as well as to prevent the release of 756 billion pounds of carbon dioxide. Boulder County’s Roofs to Roads program was the first in the state of Colorado to implement the use of recycled asphalt shingles as a component of the hot mix asphalt that is used to pave roads. Not only has it become renowned throughout the state for its effectiveness, but it also has become a blueprint for other Colorado road and transportation agencies as they begin to consider employing comparable projects. The initial project, which dealt primarily with the repaving of three roads within the county, resulted in a reduction of 300 tons of recycled shingles and avoided the emission of 33,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses.