This guest blog was written by the W+R Sustainability and Engagement Coordinator, Wyeth Augustine-Marceil
When most people think about recycling, they picture what goes into the blue bin at home - paper, cardboard, plastics, metal cans. But at the Dane County Landfill, recycling showed up in a very different way in 2025: as mountains of asphalt shingles.
Dane County Department of Waste + Renewables (W+R) has accepted shingles for recycling for several years as part of broader recycling efforts which also includes programs for construction and demolition materials, food scraps, electronics, and scrap metal. For the most part, the shingles program held steady - until a series of severe hailstorms in fall 2024 and spring 2025 caused major roof damage across the southern part of the county. Almost overnight, the volume of shingles arriving at the Rodefeld Landfill shifted from manageable to unprecedented.
To keep the program running smoothly, the County made several operational adjustments. Staff and equipment were reassigned, the drop-off area was reconfigured, a second drop-off point was added, and traffic flows onsite were at times totally altered. W+R’s new partnership with Kafka Granite of Mosinee, also played an important role; at peak times, Kafka was able to send up to ten trucks a day and bring in larger vehicles to keep material moving to their processing location.
The growth of the shingles recycling program has been considerable. In 2021, W+R recycled just over 3,200 tons of shingles. In 2025, the total has already exceeded 34,000 tons - a tenfold increase in four years. Using EPA’s Waste Reduction Model, the shingles W+R diverted from landfill in 2025 translates to more than 3,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) in greenhouse gas savings, equivalent to the emissions from consuming more than 415,000 gallons of gasoline. The shingles are processed into recycled asphalt shingle (RAS) material for use in hot mix pavement under Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) specifications.
This kind of recycling is possible in Dane County because the Wisconsin DOT is one of 31 state highway agencies that allow the use of up to 5% recycled shingles in asphalt mixtures for roads. Without this allowance, most shingles generated in the state would likely end up in landfills, which makes this a great example of how public-private partnerships and policy decisions can enable practical circular economy solutions.
The program was also recently recognized with a 2025 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Recycling Excellence Award, which highlights outstanding recycling and waste reduction efforts from across the state!
