The first time I visited Europe I immediately noticed that roofs were covered with a variety of materials but one was clearly missing: asphalt shingles. It is claimed that 80% of all residential roofs in North America are covered with asphalt shingles. Stats Canada reports some 40 million bundles of asphalt shingles are produced in Canada annually.
Asphalt shingles were invented by an American, Henry Reynolds of Grand Rapids, Michigan. First used in 1901, asphalt shingles were in general use in many parts of the States by 1911. Cheap to buy and easy and quick to install, asphalt shingles grew quickly in popularity. The one drawback, a relatively short life, was easily overlooked by folk needing a new roof and needing it, as they say, yesterday.
A little over a century later, another drawback is being becoming evident; asphalt shingles consume a lot of space in a city dump. A typical roof can contain from 3-4 tons of roofing material. The Bob Vila site carries an article estimating U.S. landfills receive nearly 20 billion pounds of old asphalt shingles annually. Because of this, more and more asphalt shingles are being recycled into material for making blacktop for roads.
Durable, long-lasting clay tiles, so popular in Europe, are finding it a hard sell in North America. That said, another alternative roofing material, metal, is attracting quite the following with some 750,000 U.S. homeowners choosing metal for their homes in 2015.
In London, asphalt shingles are the clear leader when it comes to a roofing material but metal shingles are quickly gaining ground and solar panels have a lot of adherents.
1 comment:
Back in high school, I worked for a summer at a factory making that kind of shingles. Fortunately the job was security, not the assembly line.
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