During the past 10 years, DaVinci® Roofscapes, a division of Westlake Royal Building Products™, has reprocessed more than 9.2 million lbs. of polymer scrap materials. The composite roofing manufacturer announced that its operations successfully recycled 1,146,902 lbs. of polymer waste in 2021.
“Each year around Earth Day we calculate these numbers to showcase our dedication to net zero landfill scrap,” said Mark Pagel, general manager at DaVinci Roofscapes in Lenexa, Kansas. “This is the fifth consecutive year we’ve achieved this status. The over 1.1 million pounds of scrap reprocessed in 2021 went into starter shingles and other pieces.
At DaVinci, every pound of scrap generated by the company’s expansive manufacturing operations goes into repurposed product. Green initiatives are always being enhanced to assure scrap from making roofing tiles is recycled back into the company’s manufacturing operations.
“We make our composite roofing and siding tiles with virgin polymers,” said Pagel. “We make our products in dozens of colors and color blends. When we switch from one color to another, there’s a natural transitioning period between the colors. Those transition tiles are ‘off spec’ and cannot be used, so we recycle them.”
Pagel relates that the transition tiles are carefully pulled off the product line and segregated into specifically colored scrap bins by employees. The tiles are then ground up and repurposed into starter tiles, which are generally not seen on a roof. In the past year, the reground product has also been used in the underside of the cavity on solid accessory parts, where virgin resins are used on the top visible portion of the product.
Published in the June 2022 Edition