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Putnam County's solid waste department is taking one step further in helping the county go "green" by partnering up with a local recycling company. Together, they will make use of a certain type of product many may not think of when they hear the word "recycling" - roof shingles.
Last week, the Putnam County Commission approved a resolution allowing the solid waste department to team up with the new Cookeville-based company Ground Up Recycling, which is founded by Matt Allen and Lincoln Young. The partnership will both help make use of the 8,000 to 10,000 tons waste shingles the county gets each year and save much needed space in the county landfill.
"We'll be the first county in the state to actually recycle shingles," Street said. "It saves air space and landfill space, saves us from having to bury it. We need to save all the space that we can get."
What the company will do is grind up and recycle roof shingles into a product with a consistency much like sand that will be available to asphalt manufacturers for road pavement. "Our whole target is to turn waste shingles back into a product used in roads," Allen said.
And according to Lincoln, "There are about 16 states in the United States right
now that allow shingles in their roads. It actually started out west in the Portland, Ore. (and) Seattle, Wash., area. "Not only does it provide a use for this waste, but it also makes for a better, stronger road."
The company is targeting other counties as well for their shingles - Rutherford County has already accepted to partner with the company, too. But Ground Up Recycling is getting its start in its home county. And that start will make Putnam County the first one in the state to reach a 100% diversion rating for a solid waste product, according to Allen.
"Nobody's really, per se, teamed up with a municipality, and so what we're wanting to do is get all the products going to the landfill coming to us instead of it going and piling up in a landfill," he said.
Allen said Tennessee counties are required to recycle a minimum of 25 percent of solid waste in its landfills. "In return, what we're wanting to do is pledge that tonnage back to our county so they can get at that state level the credit that they need to recycle every year.
"We just want to start the business in Cookeville and give Putnam County the credit to (have a) 100 percent diversion from allowing any shingles in their landfill," he said.
Street said the county has a high rating of 66 percent but "this will help with our numbers." And the county may no longer receive its tipping fees - fees it receives when shingles are dropped off at the landfill - but it will be well worth it to go green, Street said.
The solid waste department is receiving shingles until Ground Up Recycling announces its start date. But after that, Street said, "We're probably not going to take (shingles) anymore. Actually, (that) will be beneficial to 90 percent of roofers because (the location) will be closer than the landfill."
Ground Up Recycling, which launched earlier this year, said it is currently waiting on Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation permits that will hopefully be approved within the next week. After that, the company plans to open its site on Dacco Quarry Road within 30 to 45 days.
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