Sustainable Roofs

Oregon-based Malarkey Roofing Products continues to incorporate new technologies, products and practices designed for sustainability

Roofing innovations have been a driving force at Oregon-based Malarkey Roofing Products for more than sixty years. From its first roofing system built with saturated felt rolls to today’s highly engineered roofs, Malarkey has advanced modern roofing materials by engineering sustainable solutions to common roof problems.

“Sustainability is a responsibility,” Bobby Lambrix, Communications Coordinator for Malarkey said. At Malarkey, sustainable roofing starts with the raw materials, then the manufacturing process, and ultimately the life of the finished product, he said.

The first to introduce cleaner shingle-making technology known as polymer modified (rubberized) asphalt to the roofing industry several years ago, today, all Malarkey shingles and commercial roll roofing feature NEX® polymer modified asphalt made with upcycled
materials.

“We pioneered the use of recycled tires in shingles. We pioneered the use of plastic bottles in shingles. And we launched the industry’s first smog-reducing shingle,“ Lambrix said. “With sustainability, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do.”

By incorporating recycled materials into its shingles, Malarkey has diverted the equivalent of 217,000,000 plastic water bottles and 1,980,000 rubber tires from the landfill. In addition, polymer modified asphalt roofing shingles can be recycled and used as a valuable stock for road paving.

The company’s NEX® Polymer Modified (Rubberized) Asphalt formulation enhances shingles’ durability, impact resistance, and granule adhesion, so shingles last longer – the very definition of sustainable. Unlike oxidized asphalt which ages and becomes brittle over time on a roof, shingles made with polymer modified asphalt enjoy a flexibility and elasticity which performs in the most extreme conditions. Regardless if the contractor is installing our shingles in a Montana winter or Arizona summer, the shingle will fit properly and
perform over the lifetime of the roof, Lambrix said.

Production of NEX is also a cleaner manufacturing process overall, resulting in much less emissions than the oxidized asphalt method of making standard shingles. Malarkey is GreenCircle® certified for Recycled Product Content and Waste Diversion from Landfill at all its manufacturing facilities. Many Malarkey products are also certified by Green Circle® for containing upcycled content.

Malarkey roofing shingles are tested to roofing industry standards which include impact resistance, installation capabilities, and longitudinal studies that assess performance over time. In house, Malarkey’s research and development team apply additional tests to ensure that our products meet our own internal quality control standards above conventional manufacturers. When contractors visit Malarkey’s manufacturing facilities, the lab is always a popular stop. During these visits, Lambrix said the team often executes a test like the UL2218 impact resistance test, which drops a steel ball directly on to the shingle to mimic severe hail.

Malarkey’s R&D lab is busy experimenting with innovations and prototypes to advance the performance, durability and sustainability of Its roofing products. “Recently, we introduced smog-reducing roofing granules to all our shingles lines further improving sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “ Future product developments are in the works. Stay tuned,” Lambrix said.

© Scrap Tire News, May 2021