I just joined this site in order to post a research article put out by the Washington State Dept of Ecology about shingles: SADLY, I CANNOT POST THE LINK TO THE ARTICLE BECAUSE THIS SITE WON'T ALLOW, SO LET'S JUST SAY, ASPHALT ROOFING SHINGLES HAVE LOTS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF TOXIC CHEMICALS, INCLUDING COPPER WHICH MAY NOT SEEM CHEMICALLY, BUT IT IS.
Part of me thinks we should all absorb the toxicity we are putting into the environment by our very existance. When we reroof our houses, the old shingles go somewhere, and since many landfills are filled to capacity, well, the crap we produce goes somewhere. Think ocean, think buried, think impoverished nations willing to take our trash for cash.
The other part of me thinks I wouldn't want to deal with a toxic waste dump in the backyard of my own little castle. Ultimately, the selfishness for wanting to give my only child a little bit of a chance to have something (like health or a small inhertence that doesn't involve the nightmare of an unloadable house) wins out and I won't be making asphalt pathways, though the idea of not having to weed eat paths is tempting.
