The business benefits of recycling

By Emma Peterson. 

Beyond keeping materials out of landfills, roof recycling programs are helping contractors save money and streamline logistics. 

Recycling has long been a cornerstone of the sustainability movement, but did you know that the benefits of recycling extend beyond the environment? To learn more about how commercial roof recycling helps contractors improve project efficiency and their financial bottom line, Heidi J. Ellsworth brought Ashley Horner of Morristown Roofing, Chris Kann of Versico Roofing Systems and Richard Garrison of Nationwide Foam together for a RoofersCoffeeShop® Read Listen Watch (RLW)® webinar!  

During traditional commercial roof projects, debris and materials that are removed from the existing roof are thrown into a dumpster and eventually hauled to a landfill. What commercial roof recycling programs do, like the  Versico and Nationwide Foam program, is have contractors sort that material and debris so that not all of it goes to the landfill. Richard went into detail of how this alternative process works:  

It starts with a roofer contracting us and telling us project details, like the number of squares of the roof, what material is coming off, where the project is, what the start date is, etc. From there we send them a quote for our services and the information on how to sort and stack materials on pallets. Then, about two days before they need materials moved off site, they call us and we send out a 48-foot flatbed trailer to take everything away. And then we just keep doing that until the project is over. 

Through this process, Versico and Nationwide Foam have made material recycling accessible and easy to incorporate into operations. By incorporating it, contractors can get a wide variety of benefits to this program extending beyond the environmental benefits of diverting waste from landfills.  

For example, while this may sound like more work for your crews up front (as they have to sort materials) it saves contractors time in the long run! Ashley has experienced this firsthand, “Dealing with jobsite waste was a massive operational burden to take on. In this program, Nationwide Foam takes that burden and manages the program framework, the material guidance, even the actual collection, coordination, the pickup support.” He went on, “There's a minor learning curve as the guys have to get used to separating the materials on-site, but once they get past that we’ve found that the job not only stays incredibly neat, but we’re actually avoiding traditional delays related to dumpster swaps because Nationwide is so on top of it.” 

In addition to the time savings and environmental benefits, this recycling program has helped contractors with their bottom line! Ashley explained, “Getting a dumpster taken to the landfill is expensive, in some areas we were looking at fees upwards of $775. So, working with this program, we can actually save a lot of money by not paying for disposal.”  

In addition to these built-in savings, Versico has instigated rebate programs to offset labor costs related to the recycling program. Chris gave some insight into this program, sharing, “We provide a rebate incentive for the contractors based on the amount of membrane that they return. Why? We want to increase recycling, we know that finances are tight and so we think that a good way for us all to reach our goals is incentivizing recycling.” 

And it has worked. In Ashley’s words, “There’s a lot of contractors like my team who want to keep thousands of pounds of material out of our local landfills but must balance that with running a successful business. And what was great about this program was that it allows us to do both by providing operational and logistical wins in addition to the environmental ones.” 

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording to learn more about commercial recycling and its wide variety of benefits.