Original article from: Popular Science
 

The first shingles to contain recycled asphalt

An asphalt shingle with some recycled shingle granules and packed asphalt briquettes on top of it, part of GAF's shingle recycling process.

Recycled asphalt shingles by GAF, a Standard Industries company

There’s no reason to throw away shingles if you can just reuse them. GAF

Discarded roofing shingles typically end up tossed in landfills or incinerated. Those that do get reused are usually melted down and packed into roads. GAF, however, has figured out how to turn about 90 percent of this demolition scrap into usable material for new shingles. Once the discarded sheets of asphalt are cleaned of construction debris, they’re cut into 4-inch squares and two carpet beater-like machines remove any grippy granules that may degrade the quality of the mix. The clean 4-by-4s get ground into a powder, sieved, and separated to get the asphalt in one place, packed into briquettes, and tossed back into the standard shingle manufacturing process. The new ones contain up to 15 percent recycled material.