Source: REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR Magazine
Publication date: May 1, 2008
By Jay Holtzman
Recently, a prospective customer of American Custom Contractors, in Rockville, Md., wanted to know if the company would recycle the shingles torn from her roof rather than send them to the landfill. Co-owner Demetri Giakoumatis says that before the homeowner would sign the contract, she insisted on seeing a recycling company receipt as evidence that American Custom Contractors responsibly disposes of waste.
CONSUMER AWARENESSThe number of customers aware of recycling and other earth-friendly options such as reflective shingles isn't large, but it is growing. Herbert Frank, president of Reliable Roofing and Gutters, in West Palm Beach, Fla., says that just a small percentage of current customers — less than 5% — ask about the green aspects of their roofing. “It is really just getting started,” he says.
Consumers who insist on such products may be relatively few, but manufacturers are betting their research dollars that that's just for the moment. Roofing product manufacturers introduced a whole spectrum of energy-saving and recyclable items at the International Roofing Expo, in Las Vegas last February, where every other booth, it seemed, eagerly touted eco-value. For the moment, most of these products are targeted to the commercial roofer, but many residential roofers, such as Joseph David Roofing, in Linden, N.J., do commercial roofing as well.
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