Reduce, reuse, recycle — we all know the words, but what do they mean in practical terms? Can you reduce your waste stream? Probably. Can you reuse everything? Probably not. Can you recycle vinyl siding after a remodeling project? Yes!
Oops
Your Indianapolis-area home’s siding can become damaged and unattractive for many reasons:
- Mother Nature smacks it with branches, hail, or windborne debris during storms
- Little Lulu launches rocks at it because … well, because (just ask the darling)
- Junior and the neighborhood kids smack it repeatedly — accidentally, of course — with baseballs
- Strong sunlight bleaches out the color
- Siding, like everything, ages over time
- Plantings and bushes near the siding scrape it
- Pests invade natural wood siding
The metal and vinyl siding currently on your home can be recycled, preventing it from getting into landfills or — worse — leaching harmful chemicals into oceans.
Recycle
Facing the time to replace your siding, you can ask your local, helpful siding contractor about recycling the old materials and the cut-offs from your gleaming new vinyl siding.
Since vinyl siding is made from vinyl, a form of plastic polymer (polyvinyl chloride, or PVC), it does not readily decompose. Some experts estimate PVC bottles (thinner than vinyl siding) require 450 years to decompose. Others worry about the breakdown of plastics into microplastics that pollute our oceans.
Microplastics are a challenging and unpleasant problem because fish — even the fish we eat — can ingest these tiny plastic pellets.
While you want a beautiful new exterior to your Indianapolis-area home, you also do not want to contribute to unnecessary waste in landfills or risk the health of our oceans and children with microplastics. So how, precisely, can you ensure your vinyl siding (old and new) is recycled?
That One
Vinyl siding cannot be dropped off at your municipal recycling center. Plenty of recycling centers exist for ordinary materials, including thin-walled PVC bottles. For vinyl siding, you need a specialist.
As with everything else these days, the internet offers a solution through Scrapo, an online marketplace for scrap plastic. You can also point your vinyl siding contractor to a recycler through the Vinyl Institute’s Recycling Directory, such as Butler-MacDonald right here in Indianapolis. Please contact us today at Moss Roofing to learn how we work hard every day to protect your home and our environment. Our three core values — Honesty, Integrity, and Quality Service and Workmanship — extend to our efforts to safeguard the beautiful Indiana lands and waters.
